London, May 23 (UNI): The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected the petition of Indian national Nikhil Gupta against his extradition to the US over an alleged plot to kill US-based Khalistani separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Gupta, who is in jail in Prague, has been charged by the US government with trying to hire a hitman to kill Pannun in New York. A final decision on his extradition will be taken by the Czech justice minister, the BBC reported.
The charges against Gupta carry up to 20 years in prison.
In November 2023, US prosecutors charged Nikhil Gupta with a plot to kill at least four Sikh separatists in North America, including Pannun.
US federal prosecutors alleged Nikhil Gupta with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun.
India has dismissed the allegations and has formed a committee to investigate the allegations against Gupta.
Pannun, who holds dual US-Canada citizenship, is wanted in India on terror charges. He has been designated as a terrorist by the Indian Home Ministry.
Earlier, last month, the Indian government dismissed a Washington Post report naming a RAW officer as allegedly involved in a failed attempt to kill Pannun in the US.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal dismissed as “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations” a Washington Post report that named RAW officer Vikram Yadav as allegedly the one involved in the failed plot to assassinate Pannun on American soil, and that the operation was sanctioned by then spy chief Samant Goel.
In a statement, Jaiswal said that a probe in on by a high-level committee set up by the Indian government to look into “security concerns shared by the US” and that “speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful”.
