Indian ethnic origin V S Naipaul, considered to be one of the finest living novelists writing in English, has been "killed off" by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, the very-much-alive 77-year-old British writer who received the Nobel Literature Prize in 2001, was "killed off" by the FBI in a footnote, no

less.

The slip-up was noticed after documents presented to a Chicago court were unsealed on Tuesday wherein the acclaimed writer is referred to as "the late V.S Naipaul, a Nobel prize winning author" in the footnote of sworn testimony by Special Agent Lorenzo Benedict, according to The Smoking Gun, an entertainment and crime news website.

The mistake was part of documents Chicago court linked to the trial of two men accused of plotting to attack staff of the Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the report said.

The Indo-Trinidadian descent writer is mentioned in connection with his wife Lady Naipaul, a journalist and the sister of a Pakistani general who was allegedly killed by Islamic militants last year.

Trinidad-born Naipaul's works include 'A House for Mr Biswas', 'A Bend in the River' and 'The Enigma of Arrival' and is widely considered to be one of the masters of modern English prose.