Indian national Nikhil Gupta, charged with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York in 2023, has pleaded guilty in the case that has wider diplomatic implications for India and the US.

The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry a maximum combined sentence of 40 years in prison. He is set to be sentenced on May 29.

Gupta has been jailed in Brooklyn since his June 2024 extradition to the US from the Czech Republic, where he had been arrested a year earlier. He had pleaded not guilty immediately after his extradition. The Indian government has so far not reacted to Gupta’s guilty plea.

In January 2025, the Centre had recommended legal action against an individual regarding “activities of some organised criminal groups, terrorist organisations, drug peddlers, etc, who undermined the security interests of both India and the US”. The government had set up a high-level inquiry in November 2023 after receiving US “inputs” in the murder-for-hire plot against Pannun. The government, however, had not disclosed the identity of the “individual”.

“At the direction and coordination of an Indian government employee, Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a US citizen on American soil, facilitating a foreign adversary’s unlawful effort to silence a vocal critic of the Indian government,” said FBI assistant director in charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. “The FBI will continue to aggressively defend the homeland against any foreign adversaries who target our citizens for exercising their constitutionally protected rights,” he added.

In a statement issued on Friday, the US department of justice (DoJ) said Gupta, charged with the 2003 assassination plot against a US citizen in New York, pleaded guilty before a US court.

According to US prosecutors, Gupta worked at the direction of an Indian government employee to arrange the killing of a US citizen of Indian origin (Pannun).

Pannun is the “general counsel” for Sikhs for Justice, a North America-based Khalistani outfit accused of secessionist activities in Punjab and outlawed in India. The home ministry has designated him as a terrorist.

“Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a US citizen in New York City,” said US attorney Jay Clayton. “He thought that from outside this country he could kill someone in it without consequence, simply for exercising their American right to free speech. But he was wrong, and he will face justice.”

According to the US indictment, Gupta was recruited in 2023 by Vikash Yadav, who was employed by India’s cabinet secretariat, which houses the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country’s foreign intelligence service. New Delhi had denied the charge.

Yadav, who had earlier served in the CRPF, was said to be working for RAW at the time of the alleged plot. India’s foreign ministry had said Yadav was no longer an employee of the Indian government after the DoJ officially charged Yadav in October 2023. He is still said to be in India.

Delhi police had arrested him in connection with an extortion case following a complaint from a businessman, weeks after the US indictment in this case cited his alleged role. He is believed to have gone underground after getting bail.

The DoJ, in its statement on Friday, said Yadav recruited Gupta around May 2023 to orchestrate Pannun’s assassination. “At Yadav’s direction, Gupta contacted an individual whom he believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source (CS) working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, for assistance in contracting a hitman to murder the victim in New York City.

“The CS introduced Gupta to a purported hitman, who was in fact a DEA undercover officer (the “UC”). Yadav subsequently agreed, in dealings brokered by Gupta, to pay the UC $100,000 to murder the Victim. On or about June 9, 2023, Yadav and Gupta arranged for an associate to deliver $15,000 in cash to the UC as an advance payment for the murder,” the statement said.

The DoJ said Gupta also told the UC to delay the killing to avoid coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to the US in June 2023.