A demonstrator outside a federal courthouse in New York City beats the face of an effigy of India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, a day after an Indian government employee was charged in a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)
Demonstrators who blame the Indian government for a murder-for-hire scheme targeting a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City beat an effigy of the country’s prime minister outside a Manhattan courthouse on Friday after a hearing for a man charged in the plot.
The demonstration by more than a dozen Sikhs came one day after a rewritten indictment in the case charged an Indian government employee in connection with the foiled plan. The India-based employee, Vikash Yadav, remains at large.
Across the street from the courthouse, the demonstrators put a shackled effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside a makeshift jail cell.
Another cardboard likeness of Modi was pounded in the face and kicked around on the sidewalk.
Nikhil Gupta, who was previously charged, pleaded not guilty during the hearing, which alleges that Vikash recruited Nikhil to orchestrate the assassination.
Nikhil, 53, has been held without bail since he was extradited to the United States in June from the Czech Republic, where he was arrested in Prague in 2022.
US authorities announced in November 2023 that the plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had been thwarted that June after a sting led by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Gurpatwant, 57, advocates for the creation of a sovereign Sikh state and is considered a terrorist by the Indian government.
Gurpatwant, who did not attend Friday’s hearing, said in a phone interview after the hearing that the demonstrators surely focused their anger on Modi because “the directive to kill has come from the prime minister’s office.” — AP
