In the United States, authorities have said that an Indian government official directed the failed plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on US soil.

The authorities claimed this as they announced the charges against a 52-year old Indian man, Nikhil Gupta accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.

Federal Prosecutors said that Nikhil Gupta had worked with an Indian government intelligence and security worker in a clandestine effort to kill a Sikh activist in New York.

Prosecutors said that Nikhil Gupta planned to pay an assassin 100,000 dollars to carry out the killing.