$100k fee, Khalistani connection: US also suspects Canadian Nijjar’s murder, Indian guy implicated in Pannun murder plot

US agencies have issued a statement outlining their allegations against Indian national Nikhil Gupta following his guilty plea in the US to a conspiracy to kill Khalistani rebel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American citizen. The Department of Justice described the matter as being looked into by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and claimed that there was a connection between Pannun’s planned murder and the death of another Khalistani separatist in British Columbia, Canada, named Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was a citizen of Canada.

It claimed that Gupta had hired a hitman and that his handler was Vikash Yadav, an Indian government employee at the time. The scheme was foiled because Gupta hired this “hitman,” who was actually a US undercover agent.

Following Gupta’s guilty plea on Friday, the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, released a statement citing the indictment, which states that Gupta instructed this hitman/agent “to carry out the murder as soon as possible… but also specifically instructed (the hitman/agent) not to commit the murder around the time of the Indian Prime Minister’s official state visit to the United States, which was scheduled to begin on or about June 20, 2023.”

“On or about June 18, 2023, approximately two days before the Indian Prime Minister’s state visit to the United States, masked gunmen murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada,” it noted.

The Indian government has categorically denied any link to these cases.The US agency says Nijjar was an associate of “the victim”, meaning Pannun; “and, like the Victim, was a leader of the Sikh separatist movement and an outspoken critic of the Indian government”.

“On or about June 19, 2023, the day after the Nijjar murder, Gupta told the (hitan/undercover agent) that Nijjar ‘was also the target’ and ‘we have so many targets’. Gupta also added that, in light of Nijjar’s murder, there was ‘now no need to wait’ on killing the Victim (Pannun),” it further said.

It said Yadav had recruited Gupta “to orchestrate the assassination” in the United States in May of 2023. “At Yadav’s durecyion, Gupta contacted an individual whom Gupta believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source working with the DEA”, the US Drug Enforcement Administration. “Yadav subsequently agreed, in dealings brokered by Gupta, to pay the UC (purported hitman) $100,000 to murder” Pannun.

“On or about June 9, 2023, Yadav and Gupta arranged for an associate to deliver $15,000 in cash… as an advance payment for the murder,” it traced.

Gupta provided Yafav with regular updates on the assassination plot, including surveillance photographs of Pannun, as per the statement; “but Gupta also specifically instructed the UC not to commit the murder around the time of the Indian Prime Minister’s official state visit to the United States, which was scheduled to begin on or about June 20, 2023.”

Gupta was detained in the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023, and then extradited to the US.

Gupta, 54, entered a guilty plea on Friday to three charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. But according to sources, he might receive a lighter term for pleading guilty and perhaps helping with additional investigation