NEW DELHI: Indian national Nikhil Gupta, indicted by US authorities for plotting to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, will go on trial on Nov 3 and not in June or July as was earlier proposed.
A US district judge of the southern district of New York finalised the date for the trial, which will last only for a week, after both prosecution and defence sought postponement to allow them to file pretrial motions to resolve legal issues that may have a bearing on the trial.
US court allows just one week to wrap up Nikhil Gupta trial
In a Feb 28 order, the court had asked both parties to suggest a trial date in June or July. While the parties also said in their latest submission that they anticipated the trial to last for approximately two weeks, the court allowed only a week to wrap up. Nikhil Gupta, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, has been held in a detention centre since Czech Republic, where he was first detained, extradited him to the US on June 14 last year.
Gupta stands accused of hiring a hitman for $100,000 to eliminate Pannun, a US-Canadian national, at the behest of an Indian govt official identified as Vikash Yadav. The murder plot unravelled as the hitman turned out to be a federal undercover agent. Yadav allegedly hired Gupta in May 2023 to orchestrate Pannun’s assassination.
The Indian govt formed a high-level committee in Nov 2023 to probe US findings. In Jan, days before Donald Trump assumed office, the committee submitted a report recommending legal action against Yadav (without naming him) saying his “earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the enquiry”.
