On Pannun Case, India Looking At Institutional Reforms: Top US Official

New Delhi:

Murder-for-hire allegations against Indian national Nikhil Gupta – whom the United States claims conspired with another Indian to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun – has led New Delhi to consider “institutional reforms… necessary to deal with” such allegations, Kurt M Campbell, the Deputy Secretary of State in the US government, told press Wednesday.

Gupta, 53, was arrested by Czechia officials in June last year and extradited to the US this month.

That was after a request by the United States, which has accused him of plotting with an Indian government official to hire a ‘hitman’ who was later revealed as an undercover American federal agent. The US has claimed they have material that shows the staffer asked Gupta to plan the killing.

In return, the staffer said a criminal case against Nikhil Gupta in Gujarat would be dropped.

Gupta was produced before a New York federal court and entered a ‘not guilty’ plea.

Ahead of the arraignment his lawyer told news agency PTI “this is a complex matter for both our countries” and referred to emergent “details… that may cast government allegations in a new light”.