Indian man pleads guilty in assassination plot against prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York

NEW YORK (AP) — A man from India admitted Friday that he conspired to hire a hitman to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City, prompting a top federal prosecutor to warn anyone abroad against plotting to kill Americans in the United States.

“Our message to nefarious foreign actors should be clear: steer clear of the United States and our people,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a release after Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty to three conspiracy charges in Manhattan federal court.

James C. Barnacle Jr., the head of New York's FBI office, said Gupta coordinated with an Indian government employee, who directed him to carry out the killing, “facilitating a foreign adversary's unlawful effort to silence a vocal critic of the Indian government.”

Gupta, 54, told Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn that he was in India when he paid $15,000 online in 2023 to someone he thought could carry out the killing of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is an American citizen. Gupta was unwittingly communicating, though, with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman.

The guilty plea occurred in a courtroom packed with about two dozen Sikhs from across the United States and Canada who share Pannun's desire to win independence for Punjab, a state in northwest India, which they hope to someday rename the Democratic Republic of Khalistan.

The men briefly chanted a victory slogan in the courtroom after the proceeding ended and then held a prayer service outside the courthouse, waving yellow flags that had "Khalistan" in blue ink printed across them. American flags were carried as well.

Pannun, who advocates for the creation of the sovereign Sikh state and is considered a terrorist by the Indian government, said in a phone interview afterward that he planned to continue his activism “even if I have to face a bullet.”

“I'm not a terrorist,” he said, describing himself as a Sikh who as a human rights lawyer is campaigning to turn Punjab into a place where "all religions will have equal rights." He urged the U.S. to go after officials in India who directed Gupta.

Gupta has been held without bail since he was extradited to the United States in June 2023, from the Czech Republic, where he was arrested in Prague. A plea agreement called for him to serve at least two decades in prison. Sentencing was set for May 29.

According to court papers, Gupta suggested to the undercover officer with the Drug Enforcement Agency that he thought he was hiring to be a hitman that the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada, was the work of the same individuals planning the assassination of Pannun.

Gupta told the officer that Nijjar “was also the target” and "we have so many targets” as he instructed the officer to proceed with Pannun's killing now that Nijjar was dead, according to court papers.

Pannun described Gupta as “just a foot soldier.”

“The Indian government cannot shield itself behind this operational foot soldier because the command, the direction and the funds are authorized by the Indian government,” he said.

“I am ready to take India's bullet rather than take a step back and live like a slave. Working toward the independence of the Sikh state of Khalistan is my life's mission, until either I am killed or Punjab becomes an independent country,” Pannun added.