Nikhil Gupta Pleads Guilty in Foiled Plot to Kill Sikh Separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun

Indian national Nikhil Gupta has pleaded guilty in a US federal court to his role in a foiled plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City.

Gupta, 54, admitted to charges of murder‑for‑hire, conspiracy to commit murder‑for‑hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering, offences that together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. He entered the plea before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan and has been held in a Brooklyn jail since his extradition from the Czech Republic in June 2024.

US prosecutors say Gupta conspired with an Indian government official and agreed to pay $100,000 to have Pannun killed, with a $15,000 advance allegedly delivered to a man he believed was a contract killer but who was, in fact, a federal undercover agent. Pannun, a US‑Canadian national and a key figure in the Khalistan movement, was the target of what Washington has described as an Indian government‑linked plot, a claim New Delhi has denied while promising to examine the information shared by US authorities.