FBI CASE NAMING ME IN PANNUN PLOT IS A POLITICAL GAME: NIKHIL GUPTA

'I am an innocent man who has been framed,' says Nikhil Gupta, who is in a US prison, in the first ever interview to a media outlet. He also claims that the case was meant to affect elections in India.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Indian national Nikhil Gupta was detained in Prague in June last year by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and extradited to New York later for his alleged involvement in the assassination plot against Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who has been proscribed in India since 2019.

Gupta, locked in a US prison, answered The Sunday Guardian’s questions through an intermediary last week in his first ever interview to a media outlet, as he awaits the trial in his case to begin on 13 September.

Gupta’s response brings out how an ordinary citizen has been abandoned even as he faces the entire might of the US political and administrative dispensation, which, as per him, is harassing an innocent man to pander to the Khalistani community. Q: You have been in the United States for over a month now and away from your family for over a year. How difficult has this whole phase been? A: It’s very difficult. After coming to the US, it has become even harder. This is a slaughterhouse, not a jail.

Everyone knows about the torture that happened with me in Prague. Here, it’s a complete slaughterhouse. The jail where I am held, MDC Brooklyn, is always in the news headlines for its poor safety conditions.

Just last week, someone was stabbed in the cell across the one from mine. In the last two months alone, there have been four murders and 25 stabbings here. It’s very hard to live here. I had requested the officials and judge to move me to a different place, but my request was not accepted. I was also assaulted some days ago. I have put forth multiple requests for the appointment of a public defender to represent me, since our savings have been spent on the legal fees that I had to incur in Czech and the US. I am still waiting for a response on that.