Gupta’s legal professionals have stated he’s a law-abiding businessman unjustly caught up within the escalating geopolitical “crossfire” between the USA and the Indian authorities.
Gupta, who had been detained within the Czech Republic, arrived in New York over the weekend, in keeping with folks accustomed to the matter who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate authorized proceedings. Sometimes, extradited defendants should seem in courtroom inside a day of their arrival within the nation.
Federal prosecutors say a senior Indian authorities intelligence worker ordered the assassination of Pannun in Could and employed Gupta to rearrange the hit. U.S. authorities broke up the plot final June earlier than it may very well be carried out. Pannun works as basic counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice, a bunch that seeks to carve from India an unbiased Sikh state known as Khalistan.
Gupta’s lawyer, Rohini Musa, wrote in a petition to the Indian Supreme Courtroom that her shopper is being unfairly prosecuted, saying there’s “nothing on report to hyperlink the Petitioner to the large alleged plot to assassinate the alleged sufferer.”
Musa complained that Gupta obtained opposed authorized recommendation from a Czech government-appointed lawyer “below the undue affect of … U.S. Companies” throughout the preliminary section of his detention. She stated India and the USA had been “going forwards and backwards in charge one another for his or her international coverage.”
Prosecutors stated that hours after the assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada on June 18, 2023, the unnamed Indian authorities agent despatched Gupta a “video clip that confirmed Nijjar’s bloody physique slumped in his automobile.” Hours later, in keeping with the indictment, the Indian authorities agent despatched Gupta the road handle of Pannun. The identical particular person messaged Gupta two days later, saying that the assassination of Pannun was a “precedence now.”
In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated there have been “credible allegations” that brokers of the Indian authorities had been behind Nijjar’s killing.
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
