Pannun assassination plot: Indian national Nikhil Gupta's petition against U.S. extradition rejected by Czech Constitutional Court

Czech court rejects Indian national's petition against extradition to U.S. for alleged murder-for-hire plot on Khalistani extremist.

The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a petition by Indian national Nikhil Gupta, detained in a prison in Prague, against his extradition to the U.S. to face murder-for-hire charges in an alleged assassination attempt on a Khalistani extremist on American soil.

Gupta, 52, was charged by U.S. federal prosecutors in an indictment unsealed in November last year with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual American and Canadian citizenships, in the U.S.

Gupta was arrested in Prague, the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023, and is being held there currently. The U.S. government is seeking his extradition to America.

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The Czech Constitutional Court heard a petition by Gupta against the extradition.

"The Constitutional Court did not find any circumstance for which declaring extradition admissible would lead to a violation of any of the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms," the court said in a statement on Wednesday.

The court said it ruled that lower courts had given due consideration to aspects that may prevent extradition. It also rejected arguments that the case was political.