New Delhi: Nikhil Gupta, 52, referred as CC-1 within the legal criticism filed by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, is an Indian nationwide who allegedly conspired with others to assassinate a US citizen in New York City. The US citizen, referred as ‘sufferer’ is a Sikh separatist chief who advocates for the creation of a separate Sikh-nation known as ‘Khalistan’. However, the Justice Department doc didn’t reveal the identification of the citizen concerned within the plot. This comes after a Financial Times report on plan to homicide Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist chief.Â
According to the criticism, Gupta is a resident of Delhi, India, and works as a senior official within the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB), the nation’s home intelligence company. He is accused of being the principle contact particular person for the co-conspirators, who embody a Canadian citizen, a Pakistani nationwide, and two US residents. Gupta allegedly supplied them with data, steering, and monetary help to hold out the homicide plot.
The criticism alleges that Gupta and his co-conspirators deliberate to kill ‘Victim’ in retaliation for his criticism of the Indian authorities and its insurance policies in direction of minority teams. They additionally allegedly focused one other particular person, recognized as Victim-2, who is a Canadian citizen and a journalist who covers human rights points in India.
The criticism claims that Gupta and his co-conspirators used encrypted messaging functions, reminiscent of WhatsApp and Signal, to speak and coordinate their actions. They additionally allegedly carried out surveillance on each the targets, and mentioned varied strategies of killing them, reminiscent of capturing, poisoning, or utilizing a automobile bomb.
The criticism additional alleges that Gupta and his co-conspirators tried to recruit different individuals to affix their conspiracy, and sought to acquire weapons and explosives for his or her mission. They additionally allegedly mentioned making a faux group to say accountability for the killings, and to justify them as acts of self-defense or resistance.
The criticism states that the homicide plot was foiled by the FBI and the New York Police Department, who arrested one of many co-conspirators, a US citizen, on December 16, 2023. The different co-conspirators, together with Gupta, stay at giant and are wished by the US authorities.
Gupta is charged with one rely of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a most sentence of life imprisonment. He is additionally charged with one rely of conspiracy to commit international journey in furtherance of murder-for-hire, which carries a most sentence of 10 years imprisonment. The fees are merely allegations, and Gupta is presumed harmless until and till confirmed responsible.
