Nikhil Gupta, the Indian national who has been accused by the US of plotting the murder of Khalistani leader and designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has moved the Supreme Court seeking the intervention of the Indian Government to release him from prison in the Czech Republic.
A Habeas Corpus petition has been filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of Gupta by his family on Friday morning, reported Live Law.
In the petition, Gupta claims he was forced to consume beef and pork during his detention in Czech custody despite being a devout Hindu and vegetarian. This is a direct violation of his religious beliefs, he said in the petition. He also claims that he was denied consular access, the right to contact his family in India, and the freedom to seek legal representation.
It was last month that the US federal prosecutors charged Gupta with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen. An unnamed Indian official also appeared in an indictment along with the Indian national, who the Department of Justice alleges hired someone in the US to assassinate Pannun.
Two days ago, the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic stated that Gupta was arrested at the behest of the United States, which is attempting to extradite him to the country. Vladimir Repka, a spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of Justice, said the charges against Gupta include conspiracy to murder for hire. Though the Municipal Public Prosecution Office in Prague moved to declare Gupta's extradition admissible, this decision is not yet legally binding.
Nikhil Gupta, 52, faces murder-for-hire charges, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
According to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Gupta worked with an Indian government employee, whose responsibilities included security and intelligence. Gupta reportedly told the Indian official, identified as CC-1, that he had been involved with drug and weapons trafficking. At the government official's direction, Gupta got in touch with a criminal associate for help hiring a hitman. But that associate was actually a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent.
US authorities further claimed that Gupta agreed to pay an assassin USD 100,000 to kill the Sikh separatist leader living in New York City. "On or about June 9, 2023, CC-1 and GUPTA arranged for an associate to deliver USD 15,000 in cash to the UC in Manhattan, New York, as an advance payment for the murder," according to the charges.
