The seal of the Ministry of Justice can be seen on the podium.
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An Indian national is accused of helping Plot to kill an American citizen A New York City man has been extradited to the United States to face trial.
Nikhil Gupta is scheduled to appear in a lower Manhattan court on Monday on federal murder-for-hire charges, a U.S. District Court spokesman said.
The Justice Department said Gupta, 52, was an associate of a “senior field official” in the Indian government who, along with others, helped plan the assassination of a Sikh separatist and Indian government critic in New York City.
The critic was reportedly identified as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who has been labeled a terrorist by Indian officials. Associated Press.
Pannu, who is believed to be the target of the plot, advocated for a separate Punjab region for India’s Sikhs, officials said.
In November, Justice Department officials announced charges against Gupta following his arrest in the Czech Republic in June. They said he faces extradition to New York.
Prosecutors said Gupta, who described himself as a drug and weapons trafficker, thought he was contacting a hitman, but it turned out he was talking to a Drug Enforcement Administration source. According to the indictment, sources linked Gupta to an alleged hitman who was actually an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration officer.
DEA and FBI officials said Gupta was willing to pay $100,000 for the murder and provided surveillance photos of the alleged target in June 2023.
Around the same time, in Canada, on June 18, gunmen shot and killed another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijar, outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia. (Hardeep Singh Nijjar).
Investigators said that after the killings, Gupta boasted to undercover officers that Nijar was “a target, too,” “we have a lot of targets,” and said he wanted the operation in New York to move quickly.
India’s foreign ministry called accusations that the Indian government was involved in plotting assassinations in Canada or the United States “ridiculous.”
Spokespersons for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment on the extradition. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney also declined to comment.
Gupta was charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, both of which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted.
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