Federal judge sentences California man to 9 years for role in murder-for-hire plot
Jagninder Singh Boparai, 49, of Manteca, had been convicted of conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, the U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of California said.
Boparai was among three men who conspired to murder another man they were involved in a dispute with, court records show. The other two co-conspirators were 47-year-old Ramesh Kumar Birla, Jr., of the Bay Area city of Dublin, and 51-year-old Shaminderjit Singh Sandhu, of the Central Valley city of Tracy.
Prosecutors said that, in February 2023, Boparai met with someone he believed to be a hitman at a Starbucks in Manteca. That individual was actually a confidential informant for the FBI.
Boparai told the individual that his first job was to assault a different person the trio also had a dispute with, to prove his trustworthiness. Once complete, Boparai said he would give him another job.
The day after that meeting, the two met again, with Boparai offering the informant $6,000 for the assault. That March, Boparai met with the informant again, this time accompanied by Birla and another individual. Prosecutors said Boparai gave the informant $1,000 as a down payment for the assault.
At a later meeting, the informant showed Boparai a staged photo depicting the supposed assault, with the victim lying on the ground covered in blood, dirt and bruises. Prosecutors said Boparai told the informant he liked the photo and offered two more jobs — one being a commercial robbery and the other involving making a person "disappear."
"This defendant met on five separate occasions with a person he thought to be a hitman and provided payments for the services he desired in order to 'teach a lesson' to two of his enemies," U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said. "Fortunately, there was no hitman, and today's sentence teaches a lesson that the U.S. Attorney's Office will use all its tools to bring to justice those who endanger the safety of the public."
Later that March, Boparai gave the informant a $10,000 down payment for the hit, while Sandhu provided the informant with the victim's address. Prosecutors said Boparai told the informant the victim needed to disappear without any evidence.
Sandhu and Birla met with the informant on March 24, 2023, instructing him to kill the victim and take his remains to Mexico in a suitcase, prosecutors said. Boparai, whom Sandhu and Birla told the informant was out of town, was observing the meeting from a nearby car.
Exactly one week later, Boparai, Sandhu and Birla were arrested and have remained in federal custody ever since.
Sandhu has previously pleaded guilty to the same charge as Boparai. He is set to be sentenced in November and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Charges remain pending against Birla. He is next scheduled to appear in court in October.
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