U.S. indictment on alleged Sikh assassination plot makes link to Nijjar murder
An Indian national is facing murder-for-hire charges in a case of what American law enforcement are calling an attempt “to assassinate a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil,” with an alleged connection to an employee of the Indian government.
The indictment,made public on Wednesday, links an alleged employee of the Indian government, identified in Department of Justice documents as CC-1, to the June 18, 2023, murder of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first said Canada had credible intelligence that agents of the Indian government may be connected to Nijjar’s murder on September 18.
“The news coming out of the United States further underscores what we’ve been talking about from the very beginning, which is that India needs to take this seriously. The Indian government needs to work with us to ensure that we’re getting to the bottom of this,” Trudeau said prior to question period Wednesday.
“This is not something that anyone can take lightly.”
Nikhil “Nick” Gupta, age 52, was arrested in the Czech Republic at the request of American authorities on June 30, 2023, and extradited to the United States, the documents state.
According to the indictment, Gupta was allegedly sought out by an employee of the Indian government, identified as CC-1 in the indictment, in May, 2023, to orchestrate the attempted assassination of an unnamed target. The target is described as “a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a U.S.-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a state in northern India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India.”
It’s alleged CC-1 offered to help Gupta secure the
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