An Indian government official directed a plot to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City, US prosecutors said on Wednesday, as they announced charges against a man they said was part of the thwarted conspiracy.
US officials became aware in the spring of the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who advocated for the creation of a sovereign Sikh state and is considered a terrorist by the Indian government. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) interceded and set up a sting, with an undercover agent posing as a hit man, after the conspirators recruited an international narcotics trafficker in the plot to kill the activist for US$100,000.
The Indian government official was not charged nor identified by name in an indictment unsealed on Wednesday, but was described as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence, and was said to have previously served in Indian Central Reserve Police Force.
Photo: AFP
The charges were aimed at a different person: Nikhil Gupta, 52, a citizen of India who was accused of murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. The charges carry a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
The indictment said Gupta was recruited in May by the unidentified Indian government employee to orchestrate the assassination of Pannun, who was only identified in court papers as “Victim.”
Gupta contacted a criminal associate to help find a hit man to carry out the killing, but that person happened to be a confidential source working with the DEA. The confidential source then introduced Gupta to a purported hit man, who was actually a DEA agent, the indictment said.
In June, the Indian government employee gave Gupta the home address of Pannun, his phone numbers and details about his daily conduct, including surveillance photos, which Gupta passed along to the undercover DEA agent, the indictment said.
Gupta directed the undercover agent to carry out the killing as soon as possible, without conflicting with anticipated engagements between high-level US and Indian officials, it said.
“The defendant conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a US citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India,” US Attorney Damian Williams, the chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said in a news release.
“We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and stand ready to investigate, thwart, and prosecute anyone who seeks to harm and silence Americans here or abroad,” he added.
The charges were the second major recent accusation of complicity of Indian government officials in attempts to kill Sikh separatist figures living in North America.
In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were credible allegations that the Indian government had links to the assassination in that country of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India rejected the accusation as absurd, but Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat and India responded with the same measure.
According to the indictment, Gupta told the undercover DEA agent the day after Nijjar’s killing in Canada that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets.”
Before the US indictment was unsealed on Wednesday, India announced it had set up a high-level inquiry after US authorities raised concerns about preexisting knowledge of the plot to kill Pannun.
When the US shared some information, India took it seriously, “since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue,” read a statement by Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
The case is particularly sensitive given the high priority that US President Joe Biden placed on improving ties with India and courting it to be a major partner in the push to counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
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