Flag of the US justice department. (Photo credit: US DoJ)
New Delhi: In an indictment, made public on Wednesday, United States federal prosecutors have accused an Indian government agent of directing a foiled assassination of an American citizen on US soil. Although the indictment papers didn’t name the target, it is widely believed that the target of the alleged assassination attempt was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the leader of the Khalistani separatist group “Sikhs for Justice”.
This comes just a week after a Financial Times report broke the news that US officials have thwarted an India-orchestrated assassination bid on Pannun’s life, which India Sentinels reported on Friday.
In the indictment papers filed in a Manhattan court, the US prosecutors said they had charged an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta, 52, with “murder for hire” and “conspiracy to commit murder for hire”. “Murder for hire” means commissioning a hitman/assassin to carry out a murder in return for money and/or favours.
In their court documents, as released by the US justice department [pdf], prosecutors alleged that it was no empty threat and was linked to the killing of another Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil earlier this year. Nijjar was gunned down by unknown assailants on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural centre at Surrey in Canada’s British Columbia province.
In September, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, accused the Indian government directly in his country’s parliament and asked New Delhi to cooperate with Ottawa’s probe into the killing. New Delhi had then rubbished the claim as “absurd”. This led to a major diplomatic row between Canada and India, which also resulted in expulsions of each other’s diplomats from their countries.
In the Manhattan case, prosecutors alleged that Nikhil Gupta was directed by an Indian government official, referred to as “CC-1” in the indictment, to carry out “another” assassination and the new target would be in California. Gupta then got in touch with a hitman, who turned out to be a US federal agent and exposed the plot.
The prosecutors have not named the Indian government official. However, they allege that the Indian government official (CC-1) had served in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) earlier.
Gupta is described as a “close associate” of CC-1 and is involved in international drug and weapons trafficking. The charges against Gupta in the US carry up to 20 years in prison, 10 years on each of the two charges.
According to the court papers, Gupta allegedly brokered a deal of $100,000 to murder the New York City target. Then he arranged for another associate of the Indian government agent (CC-1) to deliver $15,000 to the undercover US agent acting as the hitman as advance payment. Prosecutors also added a photo of a roll of $100 bills that they allege was the advance payment that Gupta gave to the hitman for the “New York job”, widely believed to be the assassination of Pannun.
Some media reports cited Gupta as a businessman from Gujarat and has been in the custody of Czech authorities since June awaiting extradition to the US. Washington and Prague have an extradition treaty of wanted people between them.
According to reports citing senior US officials, the allegations worked up the US president, Joe Biden, so much that he sent the Central Intelligence Agency director, William Burns, and US National Intelligence director, Avril Haines, to India to speak to government officials in New Delhi.
Indian officials are yet to react to the latest development. Earlier, when FT broke the news last week, the Indian government said it was taking the allegations seriously and probing the issue.
About Gurpatwant Singh Pannun
Pannun, who was born in Punjab’s Amritsar district, holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. He is the leader of the Khalistani separatist group “Sikhs for Justice”, an organization with presence in North America and Europe.
India declared him as an individual terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA a few years ago. He was recently seen in a video issuing threats to Air India and asking Sikhs to avoid taking Air India flights to travel.
In September this year, India’s National Investigation Agency confiscated the property of Pannu at his ancestral village of Khankot in Amritsar and Sector 15 in Chandigarh in terror-related cases.
