Indian courts have no jurisdiction in Nikhil Gupta’s case: Czech ministry

Gupta is currently detained in Prague’s Pankrac prison.

Last week, his family approached the Supreme Court, seeking directions for the Union government to intervene in the extradition proceedings against him in the Czech Republic on a US request. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea on January 4.

In response to questions from The Indian Express, which included the allegation raised by Gupta’s family in the habeas corpus petition that the extradition proceedings have been marred by procedural failures, Vladimír Repka, spokesperson of the Czech Ministry of Justice, wrote, “Any judicial authorities of the Republic of India have no jurisdiction in the matter in question, the case is under the jurisdiction of the competent authorities of the Czech Republic.”

Last week, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S V N Bhatti that took up the matter initially had first asked the petitioner to approach the “concerned court” in the Czech Republic.

“You will have to go to the court concerned…We will not go to all this. We will not have an adjudication over here. It is an extremely sensitive matter for the Ministry of External Affairs or any ministry to come in. It is for them to decide,” Justice Khanna told senior advocate C Aryama Sundaram, who appeared for the petitioner. However, later, the bench agreed to hear the matter on January 4.

In the petition, Gupta’s family has alleged the absence of an arrest warrant, lack of fair representation in court, and denial of basic rights and consular access, rendering the trial anything but fair. The petition also alleges that he was forced to consume meat even though he is a strict vegetarian.

To these allegations, the spokesperson wrote, “The Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic does not have any information, nor has received any complaints from Mr Nikhil Gupta or his defence counsel that he was not allowed to contact the consular office of the Republic of India (if he has requested for it). Likewise, the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic does not have any information, nor has received any complaints that Mr Nikhil Gupta has been provided with an inappropriate diet.”

However, Repka added that according to Czech law “an arrested foreign national is entitled to have his consular office of the state he is a national of notified and to communicate with this consular office”.

“The arrested person must be advised on this right and provided with full possibility to exercise it,” he wrote.

The spokesperson reiterated the Czech government’s earlier confirmation that Gupta was arrested and afterwards taken into provisional custody upon his landing in Prague on June 30 at the request of the “competent authority of the USA,” which subsequently submitted the request for his extradition in August. “The extradition of Mr. Gupta was requested for the crime of conspiracy to commit murder for hire,” Repka wrote.