The U.S. Adds New Charges Against Nikhil Gupta

By adding the money laundering charge, Nikhil Gupta now faces a potential 40-year sentence, increasing the likelihood that he will accept a plea deal rather than a trial.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

US prosecutors have informed the Southern District Court of New York that they will add charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering against Indian national Nikhil Gupta.

Gupta, accused by US officials of being involved in a plot to eliminate Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun—who is banned under India's Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA)—has been in US custody since 14 June 2024, and is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He was arrested in Prague on 30 June 2023, by Czech law enforcement authorities at the request of the US government.

This new step by the Department of Justice, undertaken under the new Trump administration, potentially exposes Gupta to an additional 20 years in prison, if convicted, and is being seen as a pressure tactic to force him to agree to a guilty plea deal and "confess" to whatever he will be asked to.

Significantly, Gupta was extradited from Czech on only two charges.

In an earlier interview to The Sunday Guardian (18 August, FBI case naming me in Pannun plot is a political game: Nikhil Gupta), he had said that he had been framed in the case.

On 25 February, the US Department of Justice told the court of Victor Marreno, who is hearing Gupta's case, that it has been informed by the Ministry of Justice, Czech Republic that the US prosecutors require no waiver of "rule of speciality" in Gupta's case because the money laundering charges against Gupta are based upon the same alleged facts submitted by the US to the Czech during the extradition proceedings.

The letter informing the Czech's observation was sent by Matthew Podolsky, Acting United States Attorney, represented by Assistant US Attorneys Camille L. Fletcher, Alexander N. Li, and Ashley C. Nicolas.