A US court has issued a summons to India’s national security adviser and former foreign intelligence chief in a civil lawsuit claiming damages for an alleged assassination attempt on a Sikh separatist leader.
The summonses were issued to Ajit Doval and former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel in a suit filed by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) member Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
New Delhi considers SFJ, which advocates the secession of the western Indian state of Punjab, a terrorist group. India has dismissed Pannun’s civil lawsuit as “unwarranted and unsubstantiated.”
The US State Department reportedly served the summonses through the Indian Embassy in Washington.
“Requests for serving of judicial documents in India can only be routed through India’s designated central authority, that is, the Ministry of Law and Justice,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said, rejecting the “frivolous” lawsuits.
The case stems from an admission that an Indian citizen, Nikhil Gupta, made to a US court in February to paying $15,000 to a person he believed was a hitman to kill Pannun.
Gupta was arrested in June 2023 in the Czech Republic and later extradited to the US. He pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges, all of which carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 40 years.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency has alleged a link between Gupta and Vikas Yadav, a former Indian official, in the Pannun murder plot.
US prosecutors claim that Gupta was directed by an Indian government official to plot the murder of Pannun, who regularly makes violent threats against India on social media. India has denied any role in the alleged plot but has formed a committee to examine the issues raised by the US government in the case.
Pannun’s SFJ is among several Khalistan outfits banned by the Indian government that primarily operate outside India in countries with significant Sikh diasporas.