"On US Request": Czech Republic To NDTV On Indian Arrested In Murder Plot

The Indian man charged in an alleged plot to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had been detained at the request of the United States, the government of the Czech Republic has told NDTV. Nikhil Gupta was detained at the Prague airport in June and, the Czech government said, the US had submitted an extradition request two months later.

Responding to a series of queries sent by NDTV, the Czech Republic's Ministry of Justice said the extradition had been requested for conspiracy to commit "murder for hire".

"The Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic can confirm that Mr. Nikhil Gupta was apprehended and afterwards taken into provisional custody in the Czech Republic at the request of the competent authority of the USA, which subsequently submitted the request for extradition of Mr Gupta to the USA in August 2023. The extradition of Mr Gupta was requested for the crime of conspiracy to commit murder for hire," the ministry said.

The ministry said the Municipal Public Prosecution Office in Prague conducted a preliminary investigation and then filed a motion to declare the extradition admissible.

"Upon this motion, the Municipal Court in Prague ruled that the extradition of Mr. Gupta to the USA is admissible. However, the decision of the Municipal Court in Prague is not yet in legal force," it added.

To a question on access to Czech court records, the ministry said the decisions of courts are not publicly available online.

The US Department of Justice has charged Mr Gupta with conspiring with an Indian government official to assassinate Pannun on American soil. The Khalistani terrorists holds citizenship of both the US and Canada.

Mr Gupta, 52, is accused of attempting to hire a hitman, who turned out to be an undercover US federal agent. 

In their indictment, US federal prosecutors have addressed the Indian official as "CC-1" and claimed he masterminded the plot from India to eliminate "an attorney and political activist who is a US citizen of Indian origin residing in New York City". If convicted, Mr Gupta, faces up to 20 years in prison.

Supreme Court Hearing

Mr Gupta moved the Supreme Court on Friday, through a family member identified only as Mr X, and claimed multiple violations of fundamental rights. In his petition, he has also requested the Indian government to intervene in his extradition.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti termed the matter an "extremely sensitive issue for the Ministry of External Affairs" and told senior advocate CA Sundaram, representing Mr Gupta, to approach a court in the Czech Republic, according to news agency PTI. The court said it will take up the matter on January 4.