The seal of the Department of Justice appears on the lectern.
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An Indian national accused of helping to plot the killing of a US citizen in New York City has been extradited to the US to face trial.
A U.S. District Court spokeswoman said Nikhil Gupta is scheduled to appear Monday in a lower Manhattan courthouse on federal murder-for-hire charges.
The Justice Department said Gupta, 52, was an associate of a “senior field officer” of the Indian government and that together he and others helped plan the killing of Sikh separatists and critics of the Indian government in New York City.
The critic was identified as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, whom Indian officials have labeled a terrorist, according to The Associated Press.
Pannun – believed to be the target of the alleged plot – supports an independent Punjab region for India’s Sikh population, officials said.
In November, Justice Department officials announced the charges against Gupta after he was arrested in June in the Czech Republic. He said he would face extradition to New York.
Prosecutors said Gupta claimed to be a drug and arms dealer who thought he was contacting hitmen, but it turned out he was talking to a Drug Enforcement Administration source. The source connected Gupta to a hitman who was actually an undercover DEA officer, according to the indictment.
DEA and FBI officials said Gupta offered to pay $100,000 for the murder and provide surveillance photos of the alleged target in June 2023.
Around that time in Canada, on June 18, gunmen shot and killed another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia.
Investigators​​​​ said that after the killing, Gupta bragged to undercover officers that Nijjar was “also a target” and that “we have many targets” and said he wanted the operation in New York to resume as soon as possible.
India’s foreign ministry called allegations that the Indian government was involved in planning assassinations in Canada or the US “absurd.”
Spokesmen for the FBI and DEA declined to comment on the extradition. A spokesman for the US attorney also declined to comment.
Gupta is charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, both of which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted.
