Indian Assassin Gupta Was on NYPD Radar; Ottawa Sikh Protest Was Peaceful

A report says the New York Police Department had been monitoring Nikhil Gupta—the accused in Sikhs For Justice legal counsel and separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's foiled assassination case—for a decade over his involvement in credit card fraud and heroin trafficking schemes. Prosecutors said, 'Gupta was introduced to the CS (confidential source), who was posing as an international narcotics trafficker, in or about 2013. Gupta told the CS that he was an international narcotics trafficker and money launderer.' US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents were able to identify Gupta through their databases. DEA says India’s Research and Analysis Wing handler Vikas Yadav communicated his intentions and plans openly, using easily-monitored Gmail and WhatsApp accounts. The accounts have been seen by the prosecutors and establish Yadav was an employee of the government of India. Pannun says, Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar had warned him of an attempt on both their lives a night before his assassination on 18 Jun 2023. Acquaintances of Nijjar who frequented night clubs in downtown Vancouver had reported a group of men who had recently begun to show up at the clubs, looking for ‘a high and some weapons’ and inquiring about Nijjar and Pannun. In another case related to the Sikh protests in Ottawa in March 2023, India had accused truck driver Amarjot Singh of leading a mob of protesters who allegedly threw two grenades into the Indian High Commission. Ottawa Police Service said the event went off peacefully without incident. Concurrently, Canada has dropped all charges against 2 of 3 activists arrested on 19 Sep. They were charged with a dozen firearm offences. Both Jagdeep Singh and Arman Singh from the US were allowed to travel anywhere in Canada or return to the US. The third accused, Inderjit Singh Gosal of Brampton, Ontario and head of the Canadian chapter of Sikhs for Justice, is already out on bail. Meanwhile, Anmol Bishnoi, named in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case, has been deported from the US and is now in India's National Investigation Agency's custody for his involvement in his brother Lawrence Bishnoi’s terror-syndicate (earlier coverage).