Indian official directed assassination plot in New York, US says
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An Indian government official ordered a $100,000 assassination of a Sikh activist in the United States, US authorities said.
The US government charged an Indian man with plotting to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and accused a New Delhi government employee of helping to plan the attack.
The accusation of targeted killings on US soil is a major diplomatic breach, and comes after Canada also accused India of assassinations on its territory.
The White House said it had raised the plot with the Indian government, which responded with “surprise and concern”.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) last night unsealed murder-for-hire charges against Nikhil Gupta, 52, “in connection with his participation in a foiled plot to assassinate a US citizen” in New York.
But federal prosecutors in Manhattan said an unidentified Indian government employee with a background in law enforcement had recruited Mr Gupta to assassinate a “vocal critic of the Indian government” who “leads a US-based organisation that advocates for the secession of Punjab”.
The indictment said that both the Indian government employee and Mr Gupta had instructed a would-be assassin that the killing should not take place during Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC in June.
Arrest in Czech Republic
Mr Gupta, who lives in India, was arrested by authorities in the Czech Republic under US extradition orders.
The Indian government employee had worked as an “intelligence” officer and described themselves as a “senior field officer”, according to the charges put by the DOJ.
The indictment said the officer had contacted Mr Gupta on May 6, asking him to save their number as an alias and identifying a “target” in New York City.
“The telephone number used by [the government employee] has an India country code and is registered to an email account that, based on internet protocol data, accessed the internet during the period of the murder plot on numerous occasions from the vicinity of New Delhi,” it said.
In their later conversations, Mr Gupta allegedly agreed to arrange an assassination of the target after receiving assurances that he would not face charges for a case in Gujarat.
Contacting an undercover US agent, believing him to be a criminal, Mr Gupta allegedly then suggested that the victim could be lured to their death by someone claiming to be seeking legal advice.
He allegedly offered a payment of $100,000 to the undercover officer after discussing the price with the Indian government official, telling him: “Finish him brother, finish him, don’t take too much time.”
The charges filed against Mr Gupta contained a photograph of him giving advance payment of $15,000 to the undercover agent.
Canadian allegation
A similar incident in Canada in June resulted in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh separatist. New Delhi said allegations that the Indian government had been involved in his death were “absurd”.
The DoJ said that after Nijjar’s killing, Mr Gupta told undercover US officials that there was “now no need to wait” on killing the New York City target.
An Indian government spokesman on Wednesday said the US had “shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organised criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others”.
He added that India had indicated that it “takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests” and a “high-level inquiry committee” had been established on Nov 18 “to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter”.
