Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a petition by Indian national Nikhil Gupta, detained in a prison in Prague, against his extradition to the U.S. to face murder-for-hire charges in an alleged assassination attempt on a Khalistani extremist on American soil.

Gupta, 52, was charged by U.S. federal prosecutors in an indictment unsealed in November last year with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual American and Canadian citizenships, in the U.S.

Gupta was arrested in Prague, the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023, and is being held there currently. The U.S. government is seeking his extradition to America.

Also read: Will R&AW’s overseas operations affect ties? | Explained

The Czech Constitutional Court heard a petition by Gupta against the extradition.

“The Constitutional Court did not find any circumstance for which declaring extradition admissible would lead to a violation of any of the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said in a statement on Wednesday.

The court said it ruled that lower courts had given due consideration to aspects that may prevent extradition. It also rejected arguments that the case was political.

“For the complainant, this brings the proceedings before the Czech courts to an end.”

The Constitutional Court said it has now confirmed the decision of the general courts on the admissibility of extradition, upholding the Municipal Court and The High Court’s order.

The court also upheld the local court’s decision to reject Gupta’s request for release from pre-trial detention and did not accept compensation for detention in the form of a monetary guarantee, or in the form of a ban on travel abroad.

Before the Constitutional Court, the applicant said courts did not examine all the essential circumstances that could become an obstacle to extradition, according to the statement.

A Czech high court in January ruled Gupta can be extradited to the U.S.

A final decision on whether to extradite Gupta will be made by Justice Minister Pavel Blazek.

The Washington Post, in April 2024, reported that Vikram Yadav, a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer, was the Indian official behind the plot. The paper also said the then R&AW chief Samant Goel sanctioned the operation.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs, however, dismissed the report, saying it makes “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations” to claim that Indian agents were involved in the plot to kill Pannun.

India has publicly said a high-level inquiry is looking into the evidence shared by the U.S. in the alleged plot to kill Pannun.

New Delhi:

India has dismissed as “unwarranted and unsubstantiated” allegations made by The Washington Post that an Indian intelligence officer hired a hit team to kill US-based Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The report published on Sunday alleged US intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation to kill Pannun was approved by Samant Goel, the then chief of India’s spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

“There is an ongoing investigation of the high-level committee set up by the government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists, and others,” Mr Jaiswal said.

“Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” he said.

India has in recent times indicated it will pursue terrorists even if they escape to other countries. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said India will enter Pakistan to kill anyone who escapes over the border after trying to carry out terrorist activities in the country.

Mr Singh’s comments came on April 5 after Britain’s Guardian newspaper published a report alleging the Indian government killed 20 people in Pakistan since 2020 as part of a broader plan to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.

“If they run away to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan to kill them,” Mr Singh had said. “India always wants to maintain good relations with its neighbouring countries… But if anyone shows India the angry eyes again and again, comes to India and tries to promote terrorist activities, we will not spare them,” Mr Singh said.

The US Justice Department had indicted an Indian national in the alleged foiled assassination plot. It alleged an Indian government employee (named CC-1), who was not identified in the indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, recruited an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta to hire a hitman to allegedly carry out the assassination of the Sikh Separatist, which was foiled by US authorities.

Canada has also alleged Indian government agents were involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. India has regularly pointed out, however, that Canada has been consistently giving space to anti-India extremists.

“The nexus between organised crime, trafficking, and gun running and extremists at an international level is a serious issue for law enforcement agencies and organisations to consider, and it is precisely for that reason that a high-level committee has been constituted, and we will obviously be guided by its results,” the MEA had said in December 2023.