Who is Nikhil Gupta, charged by US with failed plot to assassinate Khalistani leader?

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged Nikhil Gupta, a 52-year-old Indian with orchestrating a failed assassination attempt against a Sikh separatist leader on American soil.

In its official statement released on Wednesday (November 29), the justice department did not name the target of the assassination, while referring to the person as the ‘Victim’ throughout the document, but The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, last week reported that US authorities thwarted a plot to assassinate banned Sikhs for Justice’s leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, and issued a warning to the Indian government over concerns that it was involved in the plot.

The US department’s description of the ‘Victim’ as a New York-based attorney who is a “vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a US-based organisation that advocates for the secession of Punjab” made it all the more evident.

"As alleged, 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," United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in the statement.

What are the allegations against Nikhil Gupta?

In the statement, the DoJ says that an Indian national (Gupta) has been charged for his involvement in a plot to kill a US-based Khalistani leader.

The statement says the assassination plan was hatched by an Indian government employee and Gupta, who was recruited as a member of the team in May 2023 to orchestrate it, was the main contact between the official and the ‘hitman’. The department has pressed ‘murder-for-hire’ charges against Gupta.

“Today in the Southern District of New York, a superseding indictment was unsealed alleging murder-for-hire charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta, aka Nick, 52, in connection with his participation in a foiled plot to assassinate a US citizen in New York City,” the statement read.

Who is the mysterious CC-1?

Prosecutors, however, refrained from naming the Indian government employee who is referred to as ‘CC-1’ in the DoJ release.

“CC-1 is an Indian government agency employee who has variously described himself as a ‘Senior Field Officer’ with responsibilities in ‘Security Management’ and ‘Intelligence,’ and who also has referenced previously serving in India’s Central Reserve Police Force and receiving ‘officer training’ in ‘battle-craft’ and ‘weapons’,” the statement said.

CC-1, the alleged chief conspirator, directed the assassination plot from India and elsewhere, the document said.

How was the assassination plot planned and foiled?

The DoJ statement claims that Gupta, at the behest of CC-1, contacted a “criminal associate”, but the latter in fact was a “confidential source working with US law enforcement.” The “criminal associate” put Gupta in touch with a “purported hitman”, who actually was “an undercover US law enforcement officer,” the statement claimed. It said that an alleged deal of $100,000 was struck between the two to assassinate the Khalistani leader.

The DoJ said that after the initial payment was done, CC-1 gave Gupta details about the identity, the New York City home address, and phone numbers of the ‘Victim’ as well as his daily routine. Gupta allegedly passed over the same to the ‘hitman’.

“On or about June 9, 2023, CC-1 and GUPTA arranged for an associate to deliver USD 15,000 in cash to the UC in Manhattan, New York, as an advance payment for the murder," according to the charges.

The US department claims that Gupta asked the ‘assassin’ to carry out the assassination “as soon as possible” while also instructing him to ensure that the dates do not clash with the “time of anticipated engagements scheduled to occur in the ensuing weeks between high-level US and Indian government officials.”

Soon after the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada’s British Columbia in June this year, Gupta had allegedly told the ‘assassin’ that Nijjar was one of their targets and there are many more, the US department claimed.

It said that CC-1 also sent Gupta a news article about the target, stating that the assassination is “a priority now.”

Who is Nikhil Gupta, what happened to him?

Like CC-1, not much is known about Gupta barring his age and nationality. The document mentions that Gupta speaks about his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1.

Prosecutors said that Czech authorities arrested and detained Gupta on June 30 this year soon after he flew from India, pursuant to the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and the Czech Republic.

Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic at the request of the US in connection with the failed assassination plot. It was not immediately clear when Gupta might be extradited to the US.

What is the US’ stand on the matter?

The US law department has said that the country will not tolerate efforts to assassinate US citizens on its soil.

Williams said that his Office and law enforcement partners neutralised this “deadly and outrageous threat. We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate US citizens on US soil, and stand ready to investigate, thwart, and prosecute anyone who seeks to harm and silence Americans here or abroad.”

Soon after The Financial Times report was published, the US sent its two top intelligence officials to India to press for an investigation into the matter.

The daily reported that Biden himself raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting held on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in New Delhi in September. "Indian counterparts expressed surprise and concern” when confronted by the allegations, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said last week, when the news of the foiled plan broke. “They stated that activity of this nature was not their policy,” Watson was quoted as saying by the daily.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Pannun claimed “India wants to kill me for running the Khalistan referendum campaign.” The filing of new charges could complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to deepen strategic ties with India as a counterweight to China, The Washington Post reported. “There’s little to be gained diplomatically from attempting to shame this Indian government and lots to lose,” Daniel Markey, a senior adviser on South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace, told the daily.

What is India’s reaction?

The Financial Times report came on a day India said that it has constituted a high-level enquiry committee to probe allegations relating to a conspiracy to kill the Sikh extremist on American soil.

On Wednesday, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said the US side shared some "inputs" pertaining to nexus between organised criminals, gun runners and terrorists and that India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on "our national security interests as well" and that relevant departments were examining the issue.

India constituted a high-level enquiry committee on November 18 to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter, he said.