US intelligence chief Haines shared case details with Indian authorities in Oct
Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta, accused by the US of plotting to kill Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun at the behest of an Indian official, was moved from a high security prison facility in Prague to US jurisdiction in mid-November, days before the indictment was filed in a New York court, The Indian Express has learnt.
Gupta (52) was at Prague airport when Czech authorities arrested and detained him on June 30. He is learnt to have been in the Czech Republic for “business and tourism” purposes, but the Czech National Drug authorities were tipped off due to his alleged past in drug trafficking.
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.
