GUILTY: Modi’s “international narcotics and weapons trafficker” assassin confesses to New York hit

Indian national Nikhil Gupta today pled guilty to orchestrating “an Indian government” 2023 assassination attempt on New York lawyer and leading Khalistan (free Sikh homeland) activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton and senior representatives of US intelligence agencies confirmed Gupta “pled guilty to all three counts…murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, in connection with his efforts to murder a US citizen in New York City” (in June 2023).

54-year-old Gupta was arrested in November 2023 in Czech Republic and extradited to the US in Jun 2024. At the time, suspicious murders and deaths of other Khalistan activists were occurring from Italy to Pakistan, all later revealed to be part of a global Indian transnational assassination program, taking out leading Sikh activists and other critics across the world, most notably Shaheed (martyr) Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey (shot dead in BC, Canada) and Shaheed Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda (suspected of being poisoned, died in Birmingham, England), both in June 2023.

India has attacked Khalistan activists over decades through various regimes, due to the threat it poses to India’s Hindu-caste-based hierarchy and general infrastructure. Pannun was targeted as a leading Khalistan activist, currently running the global democratic exercise campaign, the Khalistan Referendum for his advocacy group Sikhs For Justice. Over 200,000 diaspora Sikhs are estimated to have taken part in the non-binding vote campaign since it started in 2022, from the UK to Italy to Australia and beyond.

An FBI statement said Pannun was targeted for being “a vocal critic of the Indian Government” and that the FBI would stand against “foreign adversaries who target our citizens”.

Gupta’s guilty plea will strengthen Sikh demands for action against India’s foreign interference in the US and Canada, as he was found to be orchestrating assassination attempts against “so many targets” in North America, during the FBI sting which foiled him. However, according to a US attorney, the guilty plea also means Gupta will not be forced to expand on his connections to India’s government.

Nevertheless, a suggestion that Gupta was recruited to carry out the killing through his criminal enterprise was referenced, underlining a longtime accusation from Sikh groups regarding India hiring known criminals to target the community. One media outlet reported the court heard Gupta become involved “in exchange for having criminal prosecutions against him dropped in India”. Figures like India’s notorious national security Youtuber Indian Army Major Gaurav Arya have even gone public with requests for India’s global nationalist lobbying network to hire criminals to kill Sikhs in the USA and UK.

Statements from US authorities also confirmed the role of RAW (Research and Analysis Wing- Indian intelligence) in the attempted murder. Despite this, only last week head of RAW Ajit Doval (who was head in 2023 too) was in North America, meeting Canadian Liberal Party government representatives in Ottawa. Official US government communications named “co-defendant VIKASH YADAV, who was at relevant times an Indian government employee, to plot the assassination of an attorney and political activist…” as the Indian government employee running the killing campaign. Yadav is believed to be hiding out in India from US extradition attempts.

Amongst the US factions prosecuting Gupta were the “National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section”, underlining the gravity of the crimes India were carrying out in the US. The exact incident speaking the arrest occurred on 9^th June 2023 when Yadav and Gupta, both working from India, arranged for an associate to deliver $15,000 in cash to an undercover officer as an advance payment for the murder, according to the indictment.

A trial is currently ongoing in Canada regarding the assassins who carried out India’s hit on Nijjar. Meanwhile, no investigation has occurred in the UK regarding Khanda’s suspicious death, even after Bloomberg News recently quoted UK intelligence officers saying they were aware of India’s plans to kill the British citizen in 2023.

Hindu Indian national Gupta is scheduled to be sentenced by on May 29, 2026, where he could face up to 40-years imprisoned in the USA for his criminal activities for India’s government.

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