Dublin Man Involved In Murder-For-Hire Plot: Feds

DUBLIN, CA — A Dublin man is accused of involvement in a murder-for-hire plot, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Jagninder Singh Boparai, 48, of Manteca, pleaded guilty to conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. According to court documents, Boparai conspired with Ramesh Kumar Birla, Jr. of Dublin and Shaminderjit Singh Sandhu of Tracy to murder a person referred to as “Victim 2.”

In February 2023, Boparai met with a person he believed to be a hitman at a Starbucks in Manteca, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Unbeknownst to Boparai and his co-defendants, the hitman was a confidential informant working for the FBI. Boparai told the supposed hitman that his first would involve assaulting Victim 1, and he would be hired again once he proved his trustworthiness. The following day, Boparai met with the informant again and offered to pay him $6000 for the assault of Victim 1. In March 2023, in the alleged presence of Birla and another individual, Boparai gave the informant $1000 as a down payment for the assault.

The informant showed Boparai a staged photo of Victim 1 laying on the ground covered in blood and bruises. Boparai said he liked the photo, and told the informant he had two more jobs, involving robbing a business, and making a person “disappear.”

In March 2023, Boparai again met with the informant to pay him $10,000 as a down payment for the murder of Victim 2, according to court documents. Sandhu provided Victim 2’s address, and Boparai instructed the informant to make the victim disappear without a trace. He then made two calls to Birla asking for Victim 2’s Facebook profile, and showed it to the informant. On March 24, Sandhu and Birla allegedly met the informant at a parking lot in Manteca. They claimed that Boparai was out of town, but Boparai was observed by surveillance in a car in the same parking lot. Sandhu and Birla allegedly instructed the informant to kill the victim and take his remains to Mexico in a suitcase.

All three defendants were arrested on March 31, 2023, and are currently in federal custody.

Boparai is scheduled to be sentenced May 8. Sandhu and Birla are scheduled for a further status conference in April, and if convicted, they will face a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.