'No visit from Indian embassy': Jailed Nikhil Gupta extradited in Pannun foiled murder plot

According to the US Department of Justice, Pannun is a dual US-Canadian national and political activist.

Nikhil Gupta, accused of being involved in a murder-for-hire plot against Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the USA, said nobody from the Indian government has contacted him even as his family has “raised several requests.”

Gupta was extradited from the Czech Republic to the USA last year. He spoke to the Indian Express from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

“Since I have been extradited to the US from Prague (on June 14), I haven’t received any consular access. Nobody has visited me from the Indian embassy. My family raised several requests for the same; however, nobody has visited me to date,” he told IE.

Gupta said he received Indian consular access thrice during his detention in Prague. According to IE, Gupta’s family had approached the Supreme Court in India in 2023 seeking its intervention in his matter. The top court rejected the plea stating that it is a “sensitive” matter. Gupta told IE that his family, Gupta said, had written emails to officers in the MEA but had not managed to meet anyone.

Gupta also 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.”

Yadav, initially identified only as an “Indian official,” was recently named by the US public prosecutor. Yadav remains in India and 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),” said Gupta when asked if he knew anyone of that name.

Gupta (53) described his days in prison as “not easy”. “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 told IE.

Gupta has been permitted to make calls to his family in India and is able to speak to them at least once a month.

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, stated the IE report.

India 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 insider told IE that Yadav is “no longer an employee of the government of India”.