- Nikhil Gupta admits planning Pannun assassination plot alone.
- Expressed remorse and psychological turmoil in letter to judge.
- Gupta faces sentencing on November 20 for murder-for-hire.
Nikhil Gupta, who is on trial in the assassination plot involving US-based Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has reportedly written an emotional and remorseful letter to District Judge Victor Marrero indicating that he planned the attack alone. Gupta is set to be sentenced in the case on November 20.
"I miss my family dearly and I long to see them more and more every day. I wish I could turn back time to 2023 and undo my mistakes. Now, when I look back, I don't even recognise the man I had become. In early 2023, even though my life looked just fine from the outside, I was a mess. I was not me. I had lost my mind, my character, and became distant from the people I loved the most-my family. My heart was repeatedly warning me that I was walking down the wrong path, but I kept fighting with myself. To deal with my own struggle, I started drinking heavily almost every night, and everything went from bad to worse," he wrote to Judge Marrero.
In his letter, Gupta has detailed his psychological turmoil following his arrest and admitted that he did not recognise the person he had become in early 2023. Gupta also detailed his experience during his confinement in the Czech Republic, from where he was extradited to the US, and subsequent jail term at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC). Gupta told the judge that he took time to turn to meditation, yoga and spiritual books to cope with isolation and constant violence threats from fellow inmates.
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He said that the biggest challenge for him was to contact his family, as he could not do so due to restrictions.
"The most serious challenge in front of me at that time was to contact my family and to let them know that I was alive and to make them aware of the situation, but I could not do so for several weeks due to many restrictions on me as an American law offender," he said.
Gupta had pleaded guilty in the court on February 13 on charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering. Pannu, the Khalistani terrorist, escaped an attack in 2023 after the US authorities thwarted it. He faces up to 40 years in jail. The prosecution has requested the court to grant 20 minutes to Pannun to address the court directly.
In addition to criminal prosecution, Pannun has filed a civil lawsuit in the US district court naming top Indian officials, including National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and former RAW chief Samant Goel. India has rejected the civil lawsuit and allegations against top officials as 'fabricated and malicious.'