NEW YORK CITY — A Sikh separatist in New York City was the target of a foiled assassination hatched by an Indian government employee, according to a bombshell federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The 15-page indictment accuses the unnamed employee, a “senior field officer” tasked with intelligence, of tapping Nikhil Gupta, 52, to orchestrate the murder-for-hire plot.
But the plot failed because Gupta contacted a confidential source who, in fact, worked with U.S. law enforcement, the indictment states. The Indian government employee, through a series of messages brokered by Gupta, offered $100,000 to a hitman — in reality, an undercover officer — to murder a Sikh separatist.
Gupta at one point urged the source to carry out the murder, according to an audio call detailed in the indictment.
“(Finish) him brother, finish him, don’t take too much time … push these guys, push these guys…, finish the job,” Gupta said.
The plot was directed against an unnamed New York City activist whom officials called “a vocal critic of the Indian government.” The activist leads a group advocating for the dissolution of Punjab, a state in northern India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, documents state.
And it appears the plot has a link to the high-profile June killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada — a murder that prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take the unusual step of publicly calling out India.
One day after Nijjar was killed, the unnamed Indian government employee sent Gupta the address of the Sikh separatist in New York City, the indictment states.
“(We) got the go-ahead to go anytime, even today, tomorrow- as early as possible,” Gupta told the confidential source that day, the indictment states.
Gupta, who had orchestrated a $15,000 advance payment to the undercover officer, pressed his would-be assassins to kill the separatist throughout June, according to the indictment.
He was arrested June 30 by Czech Republic authorities at the request of U.S. officials when he traveled from India, documents state.
Gupta is charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, according to officials. Each count carries a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison.
“Murder for hire is a crime out of a movie, but the plot in this case was all too real,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith said in a news release Wednesday. “The excellent teamwork of the law enforcement partners in this case exposed this brazen conspiracy and is why Nikhil Gupta finds himself in jail waiting to answer to these charges.”
Read the indictment here.
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