Pannun assassination plot: India gets consular access to accused Nikhil Gupta

Gupta, has been detained in a Czech prison following charges by the US relating to a foiled assassination attempt on a Sikh extremist.

The officials of New Delhi’s mission in Prague have met Nikhil Gupta thrice since the 52-year-old citizen of India was arrested in the Czech Republic following an extradition request from the United States for his alleged role in a plot to kill a Khalistani Sikh extremist in New York.

The Embassy of India in Prague is providing consular assistance to Nikhil Gupta, who was arrested on June 30. He has not yet been extradited to the US.

“An Indian national is currently in the custody of the Czech (Republic) authorities pending a request for extradition to the US. We have received consular access at least on three occasions,” the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Arindam Bagchi, said in New Delhi. “We are extending necessary consular assistance as per requirement,” he said in response to queries from journalists on the Indian incarcerated in Czech Republic.

Gupta was arrested by a law enforcement agency in the Czech Republic on June 30 following an extradition request by the US. A few weeks later, the US formally requested the Czech Republic to extradite him. The Municipal Court in Prague already ruled in favour of his extradition, but it has not yet been carried out.

His family moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Government of India to intervene in the extradition proceedings in the court in the Czech Republic to safeguard his right to a fair and transparent trial. “I do not think it will be appropriate for us to comment on issues like jurisdiction. We will wait for what the Supreme Court has to say,” Bagchi said. He was replying to a question from a journalist on Prague’s stand that any court in India had no jurisdiction in the matter related to the arrest of Gupta in the Czech Republic.

The US prosecutors on November 29 alleged that Gupta had been an associate of an official of an agency of the Government of India and the official had engaged him to hire a hitman to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of the secessionist organization Sikhs for Justice.

New Delhi was quick to launch a probe in the wake of the allegation by Washington DC. “As we have shared earlier, we take it seriously. The inputs have been provided by the US and a high-level inquiry committee has been constituted to look into all relevant aspects of the matter,” Bagchi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself, recently told Financial Times that his government was ready to look into any information that any foreign government might share with it about the activities of any citizen of the country in a foreign country.

Trudeau’s allegation was outrightly dismissed by New Delhi, but it triggered a diplomatic row, with both sides expelling each other’s diplomats and issuing tit-for-tat travel advisories. India called Canada a haven for terrorists and suspended issuing visas for Canadians.

It, however, recently restarted issuing certain categories of visas for the citizens of Canada. New Delhi also made Ottawa downsize its high commission in the national capital of India, leading to the departure of 41 diplomats of Canada.