2 San Joaquin County men charged in Manteca murder-for-hire plot

A federal grand jury has charged two San Joaquin County men and one man from Dublin in a murder-for-hire plot.

Jagninder Singh Boparai, 46, of Manteca; Ramesh Kumar Birla Jr., 45, of Dublin; and Shaminderjit Singh Sandhu, 49, of Tracy, have been charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said Monday.

Additionally, Boparai was charged with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Court documents show that Boparai met with a person he believed was a hitman at a Starbucks in Manteca in February. The hitman was a confidential informant working for the FBI.

According to court documents, Boparai told the hitman that his first job involved attacking the victim, identified in court documents as "Victim 1." The court documents allege the Manteca man said the hitman would be given another job once he proved his trustworthiness.

Boparai allegedly met with the confidential informant again the following day and offered to pay $6,000 for the assault of Victim 1.

A month later, Boparai met with the confidential informant in the presence of Birla and another individual and gave the confidential informant $1,000 as a down payment for the assault, according to court documents.

After more time had passed, the confidential informant showed Boparai a staged photo of Victim 1 laying on the ground covered in bruises, dirt, and blood to indicate the assault had occurred. The court documents allege the Manteca man liked the photo and told the confidential informant he had two other jobs for him.

One job involved robbing a business, and the other involved making a person "disappear," court documents said.

The court documents allege that Boparai met with the confidential informant in March 2023 and paid him $10,000 as a down payment for the murder of "Victim 2." Sandhu allegedly provided Victim 2's address to the confidential informant.

Boparai told the confidential informant that Victim 2 "must disappear without any evidence remaining," court documents show.

Boparai made two calls to Birla in which he asked for Victim 2's Facebook profile and then sent a picture from the profile to the confidential informant, according to court documents.

On March 24, Sandhu and Birla allegedly met with the confidential informant in a parking lot in Manteca. They instructed the confidential informant to kill Victim 2 and take their remains to Mexico in a suitcase. They claimed Boparai was out of town during this meeting, but Boparai was seen by surveillance in a car in the same parking lot.

Boparai, Birla, and Sandhu were arrested on March 31 and are currently in federal custody.

If convicted, the men face a minimum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: 2 San Joaquin County men charged in murder-for-hire plot