LONDON/NEW YORK - The New York based attorney and General Counsel of pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, through his attorneys has filed a civil lawsuit in the US Federal District Court against the Government of India and senior Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) officials for their “unprecedented attempt to assassinate a US citizen on US soil”.
The legal action announcement was made at a global press conference addressed by the Khalistani leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his lawyers Matthew Borden, Partner & co-founder BraunHagey & Borden LLP and Richard Rogers, Partner at Global Diligence LLP. The law action at United States District Court, New York, by Pannun and his lawyers against the Indian govt and senior officials of Indian intelligence agency – namely, Ajit Doval, Samant Goel, Vikram Yadav and Nikhil Gupta. The complaint alleges that senior officials at India’s spy agency RAW, who report directly to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, engaged weapons trafficker and RAW agent Nikhil Gupta to hire assassins in the US to murder Pannun in New York. This scheme was foiled when the hitmen Gupta hired turned out to be undercover federal agents. Attorney Pannun’s murder was supposed to occur around the same time as India’s (successful) assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a close ally of Pannun and Khalistan Referendum Canada chapter head - in Canada on June 18, 2023.
The US Department of Justice has indicted Gupta in New York on “murder for hire” charges for the plot targeting Pannun, while Canada has recently arrested and charged four Indian nationals with first-degree murder for killing Nijjar. The Government of India cannot stop the Khalistan Referendum through threats and intimidation. I will continue to organize the global Khalistan Referendum voting for liberation of Punjab from India. And if the cost of independence is death, I am ready to face it. India tried to kill me for organising the Khalistan Referendum. I am taking legal action to hold the Modi govt and RAW officers accountable for their involvement in transnational terrorism against Sikhs at home and abroad,” said Mr. Pannun upon the filing of his lawsuit. “ I am aware Mr Modi you are still trying to kill me and trying to hire agents to eliminate me but keep in mind I will not stop at any cost and will not compromise,” he said. According to Richard J. Rogers, Pannun’s international lawyer: “India has been trying to silence Mr. Pannun for years – initially by abusing Interpol’s red notice system by falsifying evidence against him, and now by abusing its friendship with the U.S. by hiring assassins to kill him. The case states that in November 2023, US Department of Justice filed indictment against an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, on the charges of committing and conspiring to commit “Murder For Hire” of a U.S. Citizen, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on U.S. soil. The lawsuit says: “RAW’s assassins killed Mr. Nijjar in Canada on June 18, 2023, but the scheme to murder Mr. Pannun unravelled when the hitmen India tried to hire turned out to be undercover U.S. law enforcement agents. The U.S. captured and indicted Gupta. But the Government of India denies responsibility. Mr. Pannun brings this action to hold the Government of India, Doval, Goel, Yadav, and Gupta,
Accountable for their unprecedented attempt to assassinate a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil. The lawsuit says India probe confirmed that a “rogue operative” was solely responsible to target India “but this investigation was a sham” and “a recent Washington Post investigation revealed that the assassination plot was implemented by Yadav while working at RAW and directed from within the Indian spy service”.
The New York Court has jurisdiction over the claims against Doval, Goel, Yadav, and Gupta pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) and the Court has jurisdiction over the claims against the Government of India pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1605. “Mr. Pannun at this time has not named Narendra Modi as a defendant due to the immunity he now enjoys under U.S. and international law as head of a foreign sovereign government. However, Mr. Pannun reserves his right to amend the complaint to include Narendra Modi as a defendant should his status as head of state change during the course of these proceedings,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit says that India has committed genocide of Sikhs at home but has not limited its attempt to silence Sikh activism to its own borders; India has turned diplomatic missions in foreign countries into spy networks for its government; India has sent Indian consular officials to Sikh Gurdwaras (temples) in the United States to recruit members of the community to spy on fellow Americans who support the Khalistan Referendum.
“These consular officials have sought to intimidate members of the Sikh community by warning them that their relatives in India will face severe consequences if they support the referendum. Consular officials abroad have also denied official documents (such as birth or death certificates) to supporters of the Khalistan referendum. India has also attempted to use the INTERPOL Red Notice system to force many Sikh activists abroad back to India to be prosecuted.”
The government agency responsible for these murders is RAW. The lawsuit lists the cause of actions as: the Defendants have intentionally caused Mr. Pannun to become concerned that Defendants or their cohorts are about to cause a harmful or offensive bodily contact to Mr. Pannun and as a result of Defendants’ conduct, Mr. Pannun has suffered damages in an amount to be proven at trial; the Defendants intentionally tried and are trying to cause Mr. Pannun extreme emotional distress and the Defendants conducted themselves in a manner so shocking and outrageous that it exceeds all reasonable bounds of decency; and as a direct result of Defendants’ conduct, Mr. Pannun has suffered severe emotional distress.