New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea for consular access moved by a family member of Indian national Nikhil Gupta, who has been accused of plotting an assassination attempt on Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said, “There is nothing much we can do. You are entitled to consular access under the Vienna convention, which you have already got.”
Gupta, in his petition filed before the Apex Court, said, “He is currently detained in prison in the Czech Republic. He was also awaiting extradition to the United States in connection with the case there for allegedly being involved in a plot of conspiracy to murder Pannun.”
“We will not allow you to speak anything about the foreign court,” the bench told Sundaram when he tried to submit that Gupta has been placed under solitary confinement and was not granted any consular access post his indictment.
The bench noted that on September 17, 2023, Gupta received consular access in the matter and he has also moved to the Delhi High Court, where certain orders have been passed.
Gupta had on December 15 last year moved the Apex court seeking direction to the Centre about the arrest of an Indian citizen in the Czech Republic for allegedly conspiring to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu.
Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic in June last year on the suspicion of hatching an international assassination plot on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Khalistani terrorist and a leader of Sikhs for Justice.
A two-judge bench of the Top Court, headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna and also comprising Justice Dipankar Dutta rejected Gupta’s petition after finding no merit in it.
“It is a sensitive matter and it is for the government to take a call and it should also respect the jurisdiction of the foreign court where the matter is pending,” the bench said and dismissed the petition of Gupta.
The accused, Gupta pleaded to the Apex Court to pass appropriate directions to the concerned authorities in India on the ongoing extradition proceedings in the Czech Republic.
Gupta sought a direction from the Apex Court that it should direct the Indian govt to intervene in his extradition proceedings pending before the Extradition Court in Prague. He also said that he should be guaranteed a fair, impartial, unbiased, and transparent trial.
It is to be noted that Pannun is an alleged Khalistani terrorist who holds American and Canadian citizenship and a leader of Sikhs for Justice,
Narrating his ordeal, Gupta had told the Apex Court that he was illegally detained at the airport after he had crossed the immigration counter. Even though he was denied consular and legal access, and the right to contact his family in India, his fundamental rights were curtailed.
He went on to claim that he is a devout Hindu and vegetarian. Despite this fact, he alleged that he was forced to eat beef and pork during his detention in Czech custody, and he claimed that this kind of treatment was a direct violation of his religious faith and beliefs.
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