Prague handed over Pannun ‘plot’ case accused to US days before indictment

After detaining him, Czech authorities informed the Indian embassy in Prague about one Nick Gupta, an Indian national who had been detained on the  basis of a US court order.

The Indian embassy, at that time, was unaware of the antecedents of Gupta and followed procedures related to consular assistance for any Indian national. They got his passport details for authentication of his identity and nationality.

This is a routine process since many South Asians are initially identified as Indians, and their nationality needs verification.

The Indian mission confirmed  and verified Gupta’s nationality.

The Czech authorities, throughout the time, remained tight-lipped about the offences that Gupta was being investigated for.

Gupta too did not seek any legal assistance from the Indian embassy, which is usually the norm for Indian nationals in distress overseas. He is learnt to have arranged for his own legal counsel in Prague to represent him before the Czech criminal justice system.

In October, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the topmost intelligence official in the US government, came to India with concrete information that had been gathered and was going to be part of the US indictment that federal prosecutors were preparing.

The documentation and the details in the information shared by Haines – now made public as part of the indictment filed by the US Department of Justice – made the Indian government sit up and look at the information closely. It took them a few weeks to assess the information, which had some damning evidence, and they decided to investigate.

In the meantime, the US used the information for the indictment. These were solid enough for the Czech authorities to transfer him to US jurisdiction, and handed him over to the FBI. This was done in accordance with the bilateral extradition treaty between the US and the Czech Republic.

The FBI’s Prague Country Office, Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, and Czech Republic’s National Drug Headquarters worked together to transfer him to US jurisdiction.

Around that time, the Indian government and its officials conveyed to the US officials that they were going to investigate the information provided. And they agreed to set up the high-level probe panel on November 18 to look into all the aspects.

Gupta has been charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.  Each count carries a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison.

Gupta was plotting at the behest of an Indian official, and had multiple targets on his list, according to the indictment filed by the Department of Justice in a Manhattan court. The Indian official “agreed in dealings brokered by Gupta to pay the undercover officer USD 100,000 to murder” Pannun.

The indictment suggested that there were multiple individuals involved in the alleged plot, from planning to arranging logistics.

It also referred to the June 18 murder, by masked gunmen, of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia, Canada, and suggested a possible Indian role in the killing.