Exclusive | Pannun assassination plot — in US jail, Nikhil Gupta says no visit from embassy in seven months

Gupta, currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, was responding to a set of questions from The Indian Express. His replies were shared through an intermediary who has been in regular contact with him.

Incidentally, during his almost year-long detention in Prague, Gupta said, he received Indian consular access thrice.

In late 2023, Gupta’s family had approached the Supreme Court in India seeking its intervention in his matter. The top court rejected the plea stating that it is a “sensitive” matter and said it is for the “government to take action.”

Pro-Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. (File Photo)

His family, Gupta said, had written emails to officers in the MEA but had not managed to meet anyone.

In the interview, the 53-year-old denied all links to Vikash Yadav, his alleged co-conspirator who is accused of orchestrating the plot to murder Pannun, and called the evidence presented by the US “fabricated.”

Two months ago, Yadav, initially identified only as an “Indian official,” was named by the US public prosecutor. However, unlike Gupta, Yadav remains in India and, as first reported by this newspaper, is currently out on bail in an extortion case filed by the Delhi Police Special Cell.

“Vikas is a very common name and Yadav is a big community in India. I don’t know anybody with that name or related to this matter. The only time I’ve read this name is in the superseding indictment…(released in November 2024),” Gupta told this newspaper when asked if he knew anyone of that name.

Travelling from India to the Czech Republic, Gupta was arrested by Czech law-enforcement on June 30, 2023 at the request of the US government, pursuant to the extradition treaty between the two countries. Accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate Pannun, an American citizen, in New York, Gupta was extradited from Prague to the US on June 14 and has been lodged in a detention centre in Brooklyn in New York.

Asked about the evidence presented by the US government, including alleged messages from his phone number and video evidence showing him allegedly interacting with conspirators, including Yadav, Gupta said, “Everything has been fabricated and planted. I do not know any such person or agent. This is a large-scale political manoeuvre.”

Gupta said that the long legal battle has taken a financial toll on his family in India, which has now forced him to discontinue the services of a private attorney and request a government-appointed counsel in the US.

“All the funds we had were spent on fighting the case in the Czech Republic. The court appointed me a lawyer on October 30, but after conducting my own research, I discovered that the lawyers assigned to me lack the necessary expertise and experience in criminal defense and cases of this nature. With all due respect, one of them became a federal defender just 10 days prior to being appointed to my case, on October 20. I genuinely want the best lawyer for my defense, but my family and I simply cannot afford it.”

On his stay in the US prison, he said: “Life as a prisoner is never easy, but the life of an innocent man who has been falsely accused and imprisoned far from home, away from his family, is nothing short of horrific. I want to appear strong because I know my mother, wife, and children will be reading or hearing this.”

Gupta has been permitted to make calls to his family in India and is able to speak to them at least once a month, if not more.

According to the DoJ indictment, Yadav and Gupta are charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

New Delhi has denied any role in the Pannun plot. Asked about Yadav on October 18 last year, when his identity was revealed by public prosecutors in the US through a superseding indictment, an MEA spokesperson stated that Yadav is “no longer an employee of the government of India.”

When Gupta was detained in Prague, the MEA spokesperson acknowledged receiving three requests for consular access. However, after his extradition to the US in June last year, the spokesperson at the time stated that the government had not received any request for consular access.