Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta, arrested for conspiring to murder Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, has received a big blow from the court of Czech Republic.
The court said in its decision on Friday that if the Czech Republic government wishes, it can hand over to America an Indian man accused of being involved in a failed conspiracy to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil.
The Czech Justice Ministry gave this information. All the hopes of Nikhil Gupta now rest on Czech Government’s Justice Minister Pavel Blazek.
In fact, a spokesperson of the ministry said that the final decision on the extradition of 52-year-old accused Nikhil Gupta will be in the hands of Justice Minister Pavel Blazek.
Nikhil Gupta was sued by US government lawyers in November last year.
In this, Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu was accused of working with an Indian government employee in a failed conspiracy to kill him on American soil.
Pannu has dual citizenship of America and Canada. Under these charges, Nikhil Gupta was arrested in Prague, Czech Republic on June 30, 2023 and is currently being kept there.
The US government is demanding his extradition.
Now the Czech court has cleared the way for Nikhil’s extradition to America. It remains to be seen what the ministry’s decision is.
A Justice Ministry spokesperson said that nothing can be said about when the minister will take a decision in this matter. He said that in the meantime Nikhil Gupta will take every possible step to stop his extradition.
Nikhil also has the option of going to the top court of the Czech Republic. The spokesperson said that if they have doubts about the lower court decisions, they have three months to approach the Supreme Court.
Let us inform you that Gupta was arrested in Prague, Czech Republic on June 30, 2023 and is currently being kept there. His family has alleged serious human rights violations in solitary confinement, including being forced to eat beef and pork.
It is also alleged that he was denied the right to contact his family in India and the freedom to seek legal help under ‘consular access’.
Meanwhile, India has already constituted an inquiry committee to investigate the allegations.