An Indian government official directed a $100,000 plot to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York City after the man advocated to establish a sovereign state for Sikhs, US authorities said Wednesday as charges against a man from India who they say was part of the murder plot were unsealed.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Nikhil Gupta, 52, an Indian national, worked with the Indian government employee, whose responsibilities included security and intelligence, on the plot to assassinate a New York City resident who advocated for a Sikh sovereign state in northern India.
The government official was only described as “CC-1” in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court that charged Nikhil Gupta, 52, an Indian national who had lived in India, with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. US Attorney Damian Williams and other federal officials announced the charges in a release.
“The defendant conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a US citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India," he said.
Gupta "is an associate of CC-1 and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1 and others. CC-1 is an Indian government agency employee who has variously described himself as a “Senior Field Officer” with responsibilities in “Security Management” and “Intelligence", and who also has referenced previously serving in India’s Central Reserve Police Force," said the release, referring to India's CRPF reserve combat force. "CC-1 directed the assassination plot from India," the statement added.
Last spring, US officials became aware of the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is considered a terrorist by the Indian government. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stopped the plot when the foreign government employee recruited an international narcotics trafficker to commit the murder, DEA administrator Anne Milgram said.
Czech authorities arrested and detained Gupta on June 30 in the Czech Republic through a bilateral extradition treaty between the US and the Czech Republic, according to the release. It was not immediately clear when he might be brought to the US.
Sensitive issue as US courts India as counterweight to China
The case is particularly sensitive given the high priority the administration of US President Joe Biden has placed on improving ties with India and courting it to be a major partner in the push to counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
The White House declined to comment directly on the charges against Gupta, but said administration officials acted quickly.
“When we were made aware of the fact that the defendant in this case had credibly indicated that he was directed to arrange the murder by an individual who is assessed to be an employee of the Indian Government, we took this information very seriously and engaged in direct conversations with the Indian government at the highest levels to express our concern,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
The White House first became aware of the plot in late July, according to a senior administration official.
The official, who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive exchanges with Indian government, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, and underscored that India needed to investigate and hold those responsible accountable.
Biden then asked CIA Director William Burns to contact his counterpart and travel to India to make it clear that the United States would not tolerate such activities and that his administration expected accountability.
Biden also raised the matter directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they met at the G20 Summit in September in New Delhi.
In October, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines travelled to India to share information with Indian government officials to aid their internal investigation.
India needs to take allegations 'seriously', says Trudeau
The announcement came two months after Canada said there were "credible" allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb.
India rejected the accusation as absurd, but Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat and India responded with the same measure.
Responding to the revelations on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the US allegations underscores the need for India to take similar allegations by Canada seriously.
"The news coming out of the United States further underscores what we've been talking about from the very beginning, which is that India needs to take this seriously," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
Sting operation uncovers assassination plot
The US indictment said Gupta contacted an individual he believed to be a criminal associate to help find a hitman to carry out the killing, but the individual happened to be a confidential source working with the DEA. The confidential source then introduced Gupta to a purported hitman, who was actually a DEA agent, the indictment said.
In June, the Indian government employee gave Gupta the home address of Pannun, his phone numbers and details about his daily conduct, including surveillance photographs, which Gupta then passed along to the undercover DEA agent, the indictment said.
It said Gupta directed the undercover agent to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but also warned the agent not to commit the killing around the time of anticipated engagements between high-level US and Indian officials.
India had set up a high-level inquiry after US authorities raised concerns with New Delhi that its government may have had knowledge of a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader on American soil, an Indian official said on Wednesday.
The US side shared some information and India "takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue", a statement by External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said.
According to the New York indictment unsealed Wednesday, Gupta told the undercover DEA agent the day after Nijjar's murder that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets” and he added that in light of Nijjar's murder, there was “now no need to wait” in carrying out the New York assassination.
Two days after Nijjar was killed, the Indian government official behind the New York assassination plot sent Guupta a news article about the New York assassination target and messaged Gupta that “(i)t's (a) priority now,” the indictment said.
Pannun has been a leading organiser of the so-called Khalistan referendum, inviting Sikhs worldwide to vote on whether India's Punjab state should become an independent nation based on religion. Organisers of the nonbinding referendum hope to present the results to the UN General Assembly in about two years. He is also general counsel with the Sikhs for Justice, an organisation that was banned by India in 2019.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
