Indian National Pleads Guilty To Plotting To Assassinate U.S. Citizen In New York City

Nikhil Gupta Worked at the Direction of an Indian Government Employee to Arrange the Murder of U.S.-Based Leader of Sikh Separatist Movement NIKHIL GUPTA, a/k/a “Nick,” an Indian national, pled guilty to all three counts contained in the Second Superseding Indictment, 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 U.S. citizen in New York City. GUPTA pled guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn and is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero on May 29, 2026. Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City,” said United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. “He thought that from outside this country he could kill someone in it without consequence, simply for exercising their American right to free speech. But he was wrong, and he will face justice. Our message to all nefarious foreign actors should be clear: steer clear of the United States and our people.” According to the allegations contained in the Second Superseding Indictment, other public court documents, and statements made in court: 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 (the “Victim”) on U.S. soil.[1] 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. 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. 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 (the “CS”), for assistance in contracting a hitman to murder the Victim in New York City. The CS introduced GUPTA to a purported hitman, who was in fact a DEA undercover officer (the “UC”). YADAV subsequently agreed, in dealings brokered by GUPTA, to pay the UC $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 UC as an advance payment for the murder. 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 UC. GUPTA thereafter provided YADAV with regular updates on the assassination plot, including surveillance photographs of the Victim. GUPTA directed the UC to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but GUPTA also specifically instructed the UC 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. 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. On or about June 19, 2023, the day after the Nijjar murder, GUPTA told the UC 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. On June 30, 2023, GUPTA was arrested in the Czech Republic and subsequently extradited to the United States.