A federal grand jury has charged two San Joaquin County men and one man from Dublin in a murder-for-hire plot.
Jagninder Singh Boparai, 46, of Manteca; Ramesh Kumar Birla Jr., 45, of Dublin; and Shaminderjit Singh Sandhu, 49, of Tracy, have been charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said Monday.
Additionally, Boparai was charged with the use of interstate trade facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Court documents show that Boparai met with a person he thought was a hitman at a Starbucks in Manteca in February. The hitman was a secret informant working for the FBI.
According to court papers, Boparai told the hitman that his first job involved attacking the victim, identified in court documents as “Victim 1.” The court documents claim the Manteca man said the hitman would be given another job once he proved his trustworthiness.
Boparai reportedly met with the confidential informant again the following day and offered to pay $6,000 for the assault of Victim 1.
A month later, Boparai met with the confidential informant in the presence of Birla and another individual and gave the confidential informant $1,000 as a down payment for the assault, according to court papers.
After more time had passed, the confidential informant showed Boparai a staged picture of Victim 1 laying on the ground covered in bruises, dirt, and blood to indicate the attack had occurred. The court documents claim the Manteca man liked the photo and told the confidential informant he had two other jobs for him.
One job involved robbing a business, and the other involved making a person “disappear,” court papers said.
Boparai Met With the Confidential Informant in March 2023
The court documents claim that Boparai met with the confidential informant in March 2023 and paid him $10,000 as a down payment for the murder of “Victim 2.” Sandhu allegedly provided Victim 2’s home to the confidential informant.
Boparai told the confidential informant that Victim 2 “must disappear without any evidence remaining,” court documents show.
Boparai made two calls to Birla in which he asked for Victim 2’s Facebook profile and then sent a picture from the profile to the confidential informant, according to court documents.
On March 24, Sandhu and Birla allegedly met with the confidential informant in a parking lot in Manteca. They told the secret source to kill Victim 2 and bring their body parts in a suitcase to Mexico. They claimed Boparai was out of town during this meeting, but Boparai was seen by video in a car in the same parking lot.
Boparai, Birla, and Sandhu were all taken to prison by the federal government on March 31.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that if the men are found guilty, they will have to spend at least 10 years in prison and pay a $250,000 fine.
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