A gavel and a block is pictured at the George Glazer Gallery antique store in this illustration picture taken in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., Aug.18, 2020. / Reuters/Andrew Kelly

Nikhil Gupta dramatically admitting in a federal court here that he participated in a murder-for-hire plot ends the trial against him without testimony from witnesses or the trove of what the prosecutors assert was evidence against him being aired in court.

Gupta, who was accused of plotting against a Khalistani leader, pleaded guilty on Feb. 13 to three charges against him -- murder-for-hire, and conspiracies to commit that crime and launder money.

ALSO READ: Indian man pleads guilty in New York

This was a reversal from the stand he took in court in 2024, when he said that he was not guilty.

Without a trial at which prosecutors present evidence and call witnesses, which the defence lawyers try to break and present their own side, the case will now go straight to sentencing.

The target of the plot is believed to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, although the prosecution has only said that it was “a US citizen of Indian origin” who “is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a US-based organisation that advocates for the secession of Punjab” and the creation of a “Sikh sovereign state called Khalistan.”

Gupta made the admission of guilt before Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in a fast-moving development in the case, rather than before Judge Victor Marrero, who is presiding over the case.

Magistrate judges do not preside over trials and handle other matters relating to cases, and, therefore, the final disposal of the case with sentencing will go back to Marrero.

The proceedings were held in a small side courtroom and not in the main courtroom where Marrero had presided over the proceedings.

Gupta is being held in the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, where Venezuela’s former President Nicolas Maduro is also being held.

He was brought from there to the federal court near Wall Street in Manhattan.

He was dressed in the tan jail uniform and was unshackled by a US marshal before being ushered into the court through a side door.

Khalistanis filled the spectator section of the courtroom.

Netburn asked Gupta, “How do you plead to the three counts [or charges]?”

He replied, “Guilty.”

The magistrate judge then asked him, “Tell me what you did.”

Gupta, explaining his guilty plea, said, “In the Spring in 2023, I agreed with another person to murder a person in the US. I delivered $15,000 in cash by phone to a person in the US.”

Before accepting the guilty pleas, Netburn turned to the prosecutors and asked what evidence they had.

ALSO READ: US court dismisses Pannun's claim

One of the assistant federal prosecutors said, “Testimony from a confidential source, an undercover officer who operated as the would-be hitman” and “WhatsApp and text messages, bank records, video of the cash payment made to the undercover agent.”

Marrero is expected to sentence Gupta on May 29, when he could face maximum penalties of 10 years in prison for each of the two murder-for-hire charges, and 20 years for the money laundering charge, according to prosecutors.

In most cases where the accused plead guilty, they get lower sentences.

In Gupta’s case, there was no agreement on a deal for lesser punishment as the prosecutors gave the court a letter outlining the maximum penalties prescribed under the law, and he was made aware of it.

The prosecutors said in October that they offered Gupta a plea deal, which lapsed when he did not follow through.

Prosecutors declared him a co-defendant of Gupta, and Yadav, who is in India out of the reach of US authorities, who have filed charges against him here.

The Indian government has denied any involvement in the case and charged Yadav in 2023 in an unrelated case with extortion and abduction of a businessperson in India.

That case is pending, and in August a Delhi court issued a nonbailable warrant for his arrest.

US officials described Gupta as an “international narcotics and weapons trafficker” who allegedly entered the plot to gain leniency from Indian law enforcement.

The US prosecutors allege that Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the murder-for-hire plot, and Gupta approached a person he thought was a criminal to find a hitman.

But the person was in fact a confidential source or informant working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The informant introduced Gupta to an undercover DEA officer, telling him that the officer was a hitman for hire.

Prosecutors said Gupta agreed in June 2023 to pay the undercover officer $100,000 to carry out the murder.

Yadav and Gupta, prosecutors said, arranged for an associate to give the officer $15,000 as an advance.

The transaction, as well as other interactions between those involved in the plot, were recorded, the prosecutors said, and introduced visuals in the chargesheet.

Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic and extradited to the US in June 2024.

Discover more stories on NewIndiaAbroad