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.

Breaking his silence after 10 days on the record Rs 350 crore in cash seized from premises linked to him, Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu on Friday said that his family handles the business and the money recovered is not his, but belongs to the companies which were raided. He also emphasised that the money is not linked in any way to the Congress or any other political party. 

The Income Tax searches against a firm, Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd, and associated entities owned by Mr Sahu’s family began on December 6 and ended on Friday. Carried out in Odisha and Jharkhand, the searches yielded cash worth Rs 353.5 crore, marking the largest single seizure ever made by any investigative agency in India.

The record recovery, long search and videos of almirahs full of cash have been used by the BJP to slam the Congress and accuse it of corruption. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at the party using a reference to the popular TV series ‘Money Heist’.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Mr Sahu said he has been in active politics for nearly 35 years and this is the first time such an allegation has been levelled at him. “I am hurt, and I can say with conviction that the money that has been recovered is my firm’s. We have been in the liquor business for over 100 years. I am involved in politics and did not pay much attention to the business. That was looked after by my family, and I would just ask how things were from time to time,” he said in Hindi. 

In upcoming elections scheduled in 2024 May, Prashant Kishore has agreed to play the advisory role to Chandra Babu Naidu who is leaving no stone to get back to power in style.

PK has been caught in Dharam sankat to support CBN as his fully armed team in I-PAC is committed to bring YS Jagan back to power. Reminding Mahabharat Krishna dharma Sankat to choose between Kaurav and Pandav when they reach out for help. Krishna asks Kaurav to choose between entire Man power and Amunition versus his advices. Kaurav choose Kirshna war force while Krishna was left to advice Pandava. Similarly, I-PAC team which has become brand to win election is engaged with YS jagan to bring YSRCP while PK co-founder of I-PAC decided to bring TDP back to power.

PK who has become hailed as number one uno Election strategist, has been offered hefty sum of 75 crore and bonus 50 crore post election. Interestingly, CBN has roped in Show Time consulting co-founded by Robin Sharma who was former colleague of PK.

This news is giving more fuel to speculations that Chandra Babu Naidu will win more Assembly seats compared to 117 in 2014.

Author

Sumanth Kumar Challapalli