No govt links to man guilty of US citizen Pannun's murder plot, says India

Indian officials reiterated their position that New Delhi wasn’t involved in the alleged plot to kill a US citizen and vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York in 2023.

 

Nikhil Gupta, the Indian national who pleaded guilty last week in a New York court for his role in the assassination attempt on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was a private individual without any links to the government, officials in New Delhi familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

 

The government is waiting on further details from the New York court proceedings to decide on the next course of action, the people said. 

 

 

Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty on Friday to three charges linked to the attempted killing of Pannun, an activist who publicly supported establishing an independent Sikh state in northern India. Modi’s government has designated Pannun a terrorist and outlawed his group. 

 

US prosecutors had alleged that Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic in 2023 and extradited to the US, was directed by Vikash Yadav, an officer with India’s external intelligence agency, to carry out the plot. Yadav, who remains in India, was also charged in the US.  

 

India’s Ministry of External Affairs didn’t respond to a request for further information. 

 

In 2024, India’s investigation into the US claims found that rogue operatives not authorized by the government had been involved in the murder plot. 

 

Pannun was an associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot by masked gunmen in June 2023 outside a Sikh temple in Western Canada. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian government officials of being involved in the killing, allegations denied by Modi’s administration. 

 

Mark Carney, who took over from Trudeau last year, has sought to reset ties with India and move beyond the diplomatic crisis triggered by Nijjar’s murder. Carney is expected to visit India in coming weeks to discuss deeper cooperation in sectors like energy, technology and trade. 

 

India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited Canada earlier in February to hold talks with his counterpart, Nathalie Drouin. Both sides agreed to appoint liaison officers for security and law-enforcement matters to improve communication and collaboration on issues of mutual concern.