New Delhi: Indian national Nikhil Gupta, accused in the murder plot of Khalistani terrorist and US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, has been extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic, news agency Reuters reported. It cited the Federal Bureau Prisons website and a source familiar with the matter.
A search on the Bureau of Prisons website by inmate name showed on Sunday (June 16) that Gupta, 52, is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, a federal administrative detention facility. A source independently confirmed to Reuters, on condition of anonymity, Gupta’s extradition and his detention in Brooklyn. He is expected to be produced before a federal court in New York on Monday, according to India Today.
Last month, a Czech court rejected Nikhil Gupta’s petition to avoid being sent to the US. This paved the way for the Czech justice minister to extradite him.
Notably, Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic on June 30 last year, based on US allegations of his involvement in a conspiracy to commit the killing. According to US federal prosecutors, Gupta was implicated in a plot to hire a hitman to kill a US citizen, purportedly under the direction of an Indian government official. The target was identified as Pannun.
India has denied its involvement in the Pannun murder plot and has constituted a probe committee to investigate the US’s allegations.
Nikhil Gupta has also denied the charges and has said he has been “unfairly charged”.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada and is wanted in India on terror charges. He has been designated a terrorist by the Union Home Minister under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
