A New York court has summoned the Indian government and its national security adviser in connection with an alleged assassination attempt against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York.
Pannun, who holds US and Canadian citizenship, was designated as a “terrorist” by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs in 2020 for “challenging the sovereignty, integrity and security” of the country and advocating for a separate state for Sikhs, Khalistan. He heads Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), an organization outlawed in India since 2019.
On Thursday, Pannun, who is a New York-based lawyer, shared a document which is part of a civil lawsuit that he filed against the Indian government and its top intelligence officials in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The summons from the US court requests that the Indian government and the other named parties file a reply within 21 days.
The document names Ajit Doval, the Indian national security adviser, and Samant Goel, the former chief of the country’s foreign intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), as well as R&AW officer Vikram Yadav and Indian national Nikhil Gupta, who was arrested in the Pannun case in Prague and then extradited to US.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri slammed the court summons as “unwarranted” and “unsubstantiated” on Thursday. “Now that this particular case has been lodged, it doesn’t change our views about the underlying situation. I would only invite your attention to the person behind this particular case whose antecedents are well known,” Misri told the media in New Delhi.
The summon was issued on September 18, three days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to arrive in the US to participate in the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as well as a summit of the leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, hosted by US President Joe Biden in Delaware.
New Delhi has previously denied its involvement in the assassination attempt against Pannun. The matter came to light in November 2023, when US federal prosecutors charged an unnamed Indian national for allegedly participating in a foiled plot to assassinate Pannun in New York.
According to the charges, Nikhil Gupta tried to hire a hitman to carry out the assassination. The Washington Post later named the Indian agent who is alleged to have orchestrated the assassination attempt as Vikram Yadav. At the time, New Delhi lashed out at the US newspaper, branding the report “unwarranted and unsubstantiated.”
New Delhi, however, set up a special committee to probe the “relevant aspects” of the case. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that an ongoing Indian investigation into the US claims had found that unauthorized agents were allegedly involved in the assassination attempt.
The case has been linked to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another pro-Khalistan separatist, in Canada. Ottawa has linked the murder to “agents of the Indian government,” with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accusing New Delhi of involvement. The issue stirred a massive diplomatic row, straining Indo-Canadian ties. New Delhi has denied the allegations and asked Canada for proof to substantiate the claims.