New York: A US court has summoned the Indian government after Khalistani terrorist and the banned Sikhs for Justice (SJI) leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun filed a civil lawsuit, alleging a plot to murder him, according to media reports.
An NDTV report said the summons by the US District Court for Southern District of New York names the Government of India, India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, former R&AW chief Samant Goel, R&AW agent Vikram Yadav, and Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta.
Pannun is seeking damages for the alleged assassination attempt against him.
The summons asks New Delhi and those named to file a reply within 21 days, the report said.
Pannun, who is a US-Canadian dual citizen of Indian origin, is designated by India as a terrorist. Last year he indirectly threatened to blow up an Air India plane flying on Nov 19 urging Sikhs not to fly on that day by the airline.
The background
Murder-for-hire allegations were slapped against Indian national Nikhil Gupta on the US soil whom the United States claims to have conspired with another Indian to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Gupta, 53, was arrested by Czech officials in June last year and extradited to the US this year in June.
The US has claimed they have material that shows an Indian staffer asked Gupta to plan the killing.
Gupta was arrested and detained in the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023, and extradited pursuant to the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and the Czech Republic.
Gupta arrived in the United States on June 14 and was presented with the charges in court.
Gupta was produced before a New York federal court and entered a ‘not guilty’ plea. He has not, so far, requested consular access that is the right of any Indian in his position.
Federal prosecutors in the USA said a senior Indian government intelligence employee ordered the assassination of Pannun in May last year and hired Gupta to arrange the hit. The U.S. authorities allegedly broke up the plot last June before it could be carried out, according to an US media report.
India, which has designated Pannun a terrorist, dissociated itself from the plot.
In November last year, the External Affairs Ministry acknowledged the charges are a “matter of concern”, and stressed the government had launched a high-level probe into the matter. “We have said this (the act of ordering Pannun’s murder) is contrary to government policy,” the ministry said.
Who is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun?
Pannun works as the general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice, which is banned in India.
The group seeks to carve out an independent Sikh state from Punjab named Khalistan.
India designated Pannun as a terrorist in 2020.
Pannun had released a video asking Sikhs not to fly in Air India aircraft on November 19, 2023 as their lives could be under threat. He claimed that Air India would not be allowed to operate on that day. He effectively threatened to blow up Air India flight on Nov 19, 2023.
