An Indian national pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Monday. He is accused of being involved in a failed $100,000 murder-for-hire plot in June 2023 to assassinate a Sikh separatist living in New York.
File photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI
June 17 (UPI) -- An Indian man accused of being involved in a failed $100,000 murder-for-hire plot in June 2023 to assassinate a Sikh separatist living in New York pleaded not guilty Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.
Nikhil Gupta is charged with engaging a hitman to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a member of a banned Sikh movement that advocates for an independent Sikh state in India's Punjab region and a U.S. citizen. Gupta also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
According to prosecutors, unbeknownst to Gupta the "hitman" was an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officer.
Gupta entered the Lower Manhattan courtroom and entered his not guilty plea.
June 17 (UPI) -- An Indian man accused of being involved in a failed $100,000 murder-for-hire plot in June 2023 to assassinate a Sikh separatist living in New York pleaded not guilty Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.
Nikhil Gupta is charged with engaging a hitman to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a member of a banned Sikh movement that advocates for an independent Sikh state in India's Punjab region and a U.S. citizen. Gupta also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
According to prosecutors, unbeknownst to Gupta the "hitman" was an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officer.
Gupta entered the Lower Manhattan courtroom and entered his not guilty plea.
To reporters before the arraignment, Gupta's lawyer, Jeffrey Chabrowe, read a statement, describing the case as "complex," The New York Times reported.
"Background and details will develop that may cast government allegations into an entirely new light," he said
Gupta, 53, was extradited from the Czech Republic on Friday, seven months after the U.S. Justice Department laid charges and almost a year after he was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities, who allege Gupta was under the direction of an Indian government official, dubbed CC-1, in the murder-for-hire plot which was orchestrated from Indian soil.
"This murder-for-hire plot -- allegedly orchestrated by an Indian government employee to kill a U.S. citizen in New York City -- was a brazen attempt to silence a political activist for exercising a quintessential American right: his freedom of speech," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday in a statement.
"The extradition of the defendant is a vital step toward justice."
In its indictment in November, the Southern District of New York accused Gupta of being a person involved in "international narcotics and weapons trafficking," based on his communications with CC-1 and others, while CC-1 is said to have described himself as a field officer who had served in India's Central Reserve Police Force" and received officer "training" in "battle craft" and "weapons."
The Czech Constitutional Court threw out a bid by Gupta to avoid extradition in May.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison, 10 years for each count. His lawyer says he is an innocent businessman who has been trapped in the crosshairs of a foreign policy spat between Washington and New Delhi.
Pannun, who is also a lawyer, said in a statement Monday that he has "full faith and confidence that not only will Gupta but all those behind his alleged assassination attempt will be held to account.
"The attempt on my life on American Soil is the blatant case of India's transnational terrorism challenging America's sovereignty and unequivocally proves that Modi's India believes in using violence to suppress the dissenting political opinion while pro Khalistan Sikhs believe in votes to promote their cause," he said, referring to the president of India, Narendra Modi.
"If the cost for organizing the Khalistan Referendum is assassination at the hands of Modi's death squad, I am willing to pay that price."
The Indian government banned Pannun from entering the country after designating him as a terrorist in 2020, an accusation he rejects.
Prosecutors allege that 24 hours after Hardeep Nijjar, a colleague of Pannun and fellow Sikh separatist was gunned down in a parking lot in British Columbia in June 2023, Gupta messaged the undercover DEA agent "now no need to wait" to kill Pannun.
Nijjar's killing, which remains unsolved, plunged Canada-India relations into a deep freeze after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement resulting in Ottawa expelling diplomats and New Delhi suspending visas.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government vehemently deny the allegations involving Nijjar who was killed 11 months after India's counterterrorism agency offered a $16,000 reward for information leading to his arrest in connection with a deadly bomb attack on a cinema in Punjab in 2007.
"Background and details will develop that may cast government allegations into an entirely new light," he said
Gupta, 53, was extradited from the Czech Republic on Friday, seven months after the U.S. Justice Department laid charges and almost a year after he was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities, who allege Gupta was under the direction of an Indian government official, dubbed CC-1, in the murder-for-hire plot which was orchestrated from Indian soil.
"This murder-for-hire plot -- allegedly orchestrated by an Indian government employee to kill a U.S. citizen in New York City -- was a brazen attempt to silence a political activist for exercising a quintessential American right: his freedom of speech," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday in a statement.
"The extradition of the defendant is a vital step toward justice."
In its indictment in November, the Southern District of New York accused Gupta of being a person involved in "international narcotics and weapons trafficking," based on his communications with CC-1 and others, while CC-1 is said to have described himself as a field officer who had served in India's Central Reserve Police Force" and received officer "training" in "battle craft" and "weapons."
The Czech Constitutional Court threw out a bid by Gupta to avoid extradition in May.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison, 10 years for each count. His lawyer says he is an innocent businessman who has been trapped in the crosshairs of a foreign policy spat between Washington and New Delhi.
Pannun, who is also a lawyer, said in a statement Monday that he has "full faith and confidence that not only will Gupta but all those behind his alleged assassination attempt will be held to account.
"The attempt on my life on American Soil is the blatant case of India's transnational terrorism challenging America's sovereignty and unequivocally proves that Modi's India believes in using violence to suppress the dissenting political opinion while pro Khalistan Sikhs believe in votes to promote their cause," he said, referring to the president of India, Narendra Modi.
"If the cost for organizing the Khalistan Referendum is assassination at the hands of Modi's death squad, I am willing to pay that price."
The Indian government banned Pannun from entering the country after designating him as a terrorist in 2020, an accusation he rejects.
Prosecutors allege that 24 hours after Hardeep Nijjar, a colleague of Pannun and fellow Sikh separatist was gunned down in a parking lot in British Columbia in June 2023, Gupta messaged the undercover DEA agent "now no need to wait" to kill Pannun.
Nijjar's killing, which remains unsolved, plunged Canada-India relations into a deep freeze after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement resulting in Ottawa expelling diplomats and New Delhi suspending visas.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government vehemently deny the allegations involving Nijjar who was killed 11 months after India's counterterrorism agency offered a $16,000 reward for information leading to his arrest in connection with a deadly bomb attack on a cinema in Punjab in 2007.
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