Pannun plot: In Nikhil Gupta’s guilty plea, US Justice Dept names R&AW

Gupta’s plea puts India in a tough spot given the admission of guilt by an Indian citizen for being part of an assassination plot overseas involving one of its officials. Until now, the Government had persistently stonewalled all allegations regarding the case, and dissociated itself from any such plot, saying it was against policy.

The DoJ statement also referred to the assassination in Canada of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023, saying Gupta allegedly told a US undercover officer the day after the killing that Nijjar “was also the target”. The Nijjar killing had led to a protracted back and forth between India and Canada, with officials exploring both diplomatic and legal options to break the deadlock.

Gupta has been jailed in Brooklyn since his June 2024 extradition from the Czech Republic, where he had been arrested a year earlier on a request from the US. He had pleaded not guilty immediately after his extradition.

According to DoJ, Gupta, has now pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

“Nikhil Gupta, a/k/a “Nick,” an Indian national, pled guilty to all three counts contained in the Second Superseding Indictment (by DoJ in 2024), charging him with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, in connection with his efforts to murder a US citizen in New York City,” the DoJ statement said.

“Gupta pled guilty before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn and is scheduled to be sentenced by US District Judge Victor Marrero on May 29, 2026,” it said.

According to the statement, “Gupta is a citizen and was a resident of India, and he has described himself as an international narcotics and weapons trafficker in electronic communications with Yadav and others. Yadav was employed by the Government of India’s Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing.”

Citing allegations contained in its second indictment in the case, other public court documents, and statements made in court, the DoJ said: “In or about 2023, Gupta worked together with others in India and elsewhere, including, as alleged in the Second Superseding Indictment, co-defendant Vikash Yadav, who was at relevant times an Indian government employee, to plot the assassination of an attorney and political activist… on U.S. Soil.”

It said, “The Victim, who is a U.S. citizen of Indian origin, is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a U.S.-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a state in northern India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India. The Victim has publicly called for some or all of Punjab to secede from India and establish a Sikh sovereign state called Khalistan, and the Indian government has banned the Victim and his separatist organization from India.”

It said, “In or about May 2023, Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of the Victim in the United States. At Yadav’s direction, Gupta contacted an individual whom Gupta believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source working with the DEA… for assistance in contracting a hitman to murder the Victim in New York City.”

The source, it said, “introduced Gupta to a purported hitman, who was in fact a DEA undercover officer… Yadav subsequently agreed, in dealings brokered by Gupta, to pay the (officer) $100,000 to murder the Victim”. “On or about June 9, 2023, Yadav and Gupta arranged for an associate to deliver $15,000 in cash to the (undercover officer) as an advance payment for the murder,” it said.

“In or about June 2023, in furtherance of the assassination plot, Yadav provided Gupta with personal information about the Victim, including the Victim’s home address in New York City, phone numbers associated with the Victim, and details about the Victim’s day-to-day conduct, which Gupta then passed to the (undercover officer),” the DoJ said.

“Gupta thereafter provided Yadav with regular updates on the assassination plot, including surveillance photographs of the Victim. Gupta directed the (undercover officer) to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but Gupta also specifically instructed the (undercover officer) not to commit the murder around the time of the Indian Prime Minister’s official state visit to the United States, which was scheduled to begin on or about June 20, 2023,” it said.

“On or about June 18, 2023, approximately two days before the Indian Prime Minister’s state visit to the United States, masked gunmen murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. Nijjar was an associate of the Victim, and, like the Victim, was a leader of the Sikh separatist movement and an outspoken critic of the Indian government,” it said.

“On or about June 19, 2023, the day after the Nijjar murder, Gupta told the (undercover officer) that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets.” Gupta also added that, in light of Nijjar’s murder, there was “now no need to wait” on killing the Victim,” the statement said.

“On June 30, 2023, Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic and subsequently extradited to the United States,” the DoJ said.

On November 30, 2023, after the DoJ’s first indictment in the case, the MEA had said, “As regards the case against an individual that has been filed in a US court allegedly linking him to an Indian official, this is a matter of concern. We have said and let me reiterate that this is contrary to government policy.” It also announced a high-level committee to probe and address US concerns.

On October 18, 2024, following the second indictment, the MEA had said that Vikash Yadav was not a government employee. Responding to a subsequent Washington Post report that linked the plot to the Indian establishment, the MEA called it “speculative, irresponsible”.

The Indian Express first reported on October 19, 2024, that Yadav had been arrested by the Delhi police in an unrelated case three weeks after his name was first revealed by the DoJ in October 2023 — and that he had been released on bail in April 2024.