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New Delhi: Exactly two years ago today, 51-year-old Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta was arrested at Prague airport in a case that would ripple far beyond the Czech Republic.

Newly released Czech government documents, photographs, and US reports reviewed by The Wire reconstruct Gupta’s first 24 hours in custody, detailing his arrest, the questioning inside a Czech police vehicle, and prior coordination between the US and Czech authorities.

What began as a passport check of arriving passengers soon turned into a questioning in a darkened police vehicle, culminating into the first time a US court charged an Indian intelligence official in connection with an international murder-for-hire conspiracy.

This new trove of documents submitted by Gupta’s defence in a New York court was part of a motion to suppress evidence, challenging the use of data from his two iPhones and statements made to Czech and US officials immediately after his arrest. The trial will begin on November 3.

Gupta’s arrest became public only when the first indictment was unsealed in November 2023. It stated that Gupta had asked an associate, who turned out to be a DEA informant, to find a hitman to assassinate a lawyer in New York. 

The target has never been named in the court documents but was identified by media reports as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for the Sikhs for Justice, a group proscribed in India.

The request was allegedly made on instructions from an Indian intelligence agent, initially identified only as ‘CC-1’. It was not until October 2024 that US prosecutors named ‘CC-1’ as Vikash Yadav.

Gupta believed ‘confidential source is a Colombian cocaine supplier’

While the basic outline of Gupta’s arrest had been known, the new documents offer a far more detailed account of what happened behind the scenes.

The file includes covertly taken photographs of his arrival. In the first image, Gupta is seen at Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport, standing at the front of a line of passengers who appear to have just disembarked. Three officers in light blue shirts marked ‘Policie’ (police) are inspecting the group. Gupta is wearing a maroon T-shirt and dark slim-fit trousers, holding a phone in one hand and gripping the handle of a dark green cabin baggage, with a yellow travel pillow looped around it.

His passport appears to have been checked, as he stands ahead of the others near the officers. He is looking around but is not seen interacting directly with the police, suggesting he had been asked to wait.

In the next photo, he is gesturing with his right hand, possibly holding his passport, towards an officer who is not looking directly at him. His hands are cuffed down, and his mouth is open, as if he is in the middle of speaking.

Two and a half weeks earlier, a federal court in the Southern District of New York had issued an arrest warrant based on a sealed indictment. On June 19, 2023, the US Department of Justice sent a formal request to the Czech Ministry of Justice asking for Gupta’s arrest.

According to the request, the DEA’s........

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