An Indian man accused of scheming to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist in New York City has been extradited to the U.S., officials announced Monday.
Nikhil “Nick” Gupta, 52, was arrested nearly a year ago in the Czech Republic and had fought the extradition in court.
However, Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek revealed Monday that he had approved the transfer, after Gupta lost his legal challenges last month.
Gupta was booked at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, according to online records. He appeared Monday in Manhattan Federal Court and pleaded not guilty.
Federal authorities claim Gupta was a small part of a sprawling operation to kill Sikh leaders in North America. He was hired by an unnamed Indian government official to coordinate an assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a leader at Sikhs for Justice, according to court documents.
Gupta contacted someone he believed to be a criminal associate, the feds said. Instead, his contact was an undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
When Gupta asked the source to put him in touch with a hitman, the source connected him with another undercover DEA agent, according to investigators. The feds said Gupta agreed to pay $100,000 for the hit and delivered an advance payment of $15,000.
On June 18, 2023, another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was killed by masked gunmen near his house of worship in Surrey, British Columbia, outside Vancouver.
After Nijjar was killed, Gupta’s Indian government contact sent him a video of the slain man, the feds said. Gupta told the undercover DEA agent that Nijjar was on the same hit list as Pannun, according to charging documents.
About two weeks later, on June 30, Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic. Federal authorities announced in November that they had unraveled the plot.
India’s government has claimed it had nothing to do with the assassination of Nijjar or the plot against Pannun, though both men were designated as “terrorists” by Indian authorities.
Gupta appealed to India for diplomatic help in January, but the nation’s top court decided he would not receive any such aid.
Following Nijjar’s murder, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “credible evidence” of India’s involvement, sparking a diplomatic spat. Since then, four Indian nationals have been arrested in Canada and charged with Nijjar’s murder. U.S. officials have not formally made any similar claims about the plot against Pannun.
With News Wire Services
