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By Hugh Cameron
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An Indian man has been extradited to the U.S. to face charges related to the thwarted attempted murder of a U.S. citizen.
Nikhil Gupta, 52, is accused of conspiring with an Indian government official in the attempted contract killing of a US citizen who has campaigned for a breakaway state for Indian Sikhs.
Gupta was extradited from the Czech Republic, where he was arrested on June 30 last year following the joint efforts of U.S. and international law enforcement agencies. He will face charges in the US that carry a penalty of up to 20 years.
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In November, federal prosecutors announced that they had stopped an attempt to murder a man involved in a movement calling for the creation of a Sikh homeland in India. Law enforcement agencies alleged that Gupta, 52, acting with the unnamed Indian official, sought a presumed criminal associate to arrange the hiring of a hitman.
Unbeknownst to Gupta, the individual he contacted turned out to be an undercover U.S. law enforcement source. The undercover agent subsequently facilitated Gupta's connection with another law enforcement officer posing as the hitman, leading to a deal brokered for the Indian government official to pay the purported hitman for the killing.
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In November, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that Gupta "conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a U.S. citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India."
"I am grateful that my Office and our law enforcement partners neutralized this deadly and outrageous threat. We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and stand ready to investigate, thwart, and prosecute anyone who seeks to harm and silence Americans here or abroad."
Newsweek has attempted to reach the U.S. Department of Justice by phone and email for a comment on Gupta's trial.
Following failed attempts to contest the American extradition request, Gupta was flown to the U.S. over the weekend and is now expected to appear in New York on Monday.
Gupta's lawyer, Rohini Musa, has alleged that her client has been detained wrongfully, and that he had received poor legal advice from a Czech government appointed attorney, Business Today reported.
Newsweek has reached out to Gupta's lawyer by email for comment.
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The target of the alleged plot was identified as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. Pannun is the spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, a separatist organization which supports the Khalistan movement seeking to create a sovereign state for Sikhs in the Punjab region.
In 2019, the organization was banned by the Indian government, which also lists Pannun as a terrorist.
"The attempt on my life on American Soil is the blatant case of India's transnational terrorism, which has become a challenge to America's sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy, which unequivocally proves that India believes in using bullets while pro-Khalistan Sikhs believe in ballots," Pannun previously told Newsweek.
The case, which given the potential involvement of the Indian government could have serious repercussions for the country's relationship with Washington, follows allegations that India was involved in the shooting of another Sikh separatist in Canada in June.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was wanted by Interpol and the Indian government due to alleged terrorist activities, was fatally shot outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.
India, which denied complicity in Nijjar's death, subsequently accused Canada of indirectly supporting groups that aim to carve an independent Sikh state of Khalistan out of Indian territory.
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