The U.S. Department of Justice has charged an Indian national with plotting to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York City, after federal agents allegedly thwarted a murder-for-hire conspiracy. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say 52-year-old Nikhil Gupta has been arrested in the Czech Republic, pending extradition to the United States, after an unnamed Indian government employee recruited him last May to carry out the assassination. Gupta allegedly offered a $100,000 bounty to a hitman who turned out to be an undercover DEA agent. The plot allegedly targeted Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. citizen, lawyer, and spokesperson for the organization Sikhs for Justice, which advocates for an independent state for Sikhs in northern India. Gupta’s arrest comes just two months after Canada’s government said agents of India’s government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi were directly involved in the assassination of prominent Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.