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 and 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 and co-founder BraunHagey and 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 government 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, which 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.
According to the complaint, the plot was part of a broader effort to kill prominent Sikh activists who advocate for the right to self-determination for Sikh people over the Indian region of Punjab, critically speak against the persecution of religious minorities, and condemn human rights abuses by the regime of PM Modi.
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 denies responsibility [for the hit it ordered on Pannun],” the complaint alleges, even as PM Modi boasted at a political rally “that ‘even India’s enemies know this is Modi, this is the new India, it can come into your home and kill you.’”
“This case is about holding India accountable for its crime of transnational repression against pro Khalistan Sikhs. The Government of India cannot stop the Khalistan Referendum through threats and intimidation. I will continue to organise 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 government and RAW officers accountable for their involvement in transnational terrorism against Sikhs at home and abroad,” said Pannun upon the filing of his lawsuit.
“In this country we have freedom of speech and the rule of law. When a foreign government seeks to export tyranny and murder, our citizens have a right to seek redress in the courts,” said Pannun’s counsel, Matthew Borden. “We aim to hold everyone involved in this plot accountable.”
“I am aware 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 Pannun for years — initially by abusing Interpol’s red notice system by falsifying evidence against him, and now by abusing its friendship with the US by hiring assassins to kill him. Pannun runs Khalistan Referendum campaign. It’s a peaceful campaign and involves no terrorism or guns or violence. India has showed no proofs Pannun has ever broken the law. India’s murder plot is a worrying trend, targeting Sikhs.”
The case states that in November 2023, US Department of Justice filed indictment against an Indian national, Gupta, on the charges of committing and conspiring to commit “Murder For Hire” of a US Citizen, Pannun, on US soil. According to the US DOJ indictment, acting on behalf of the Indian Government officials, Gupta attempted to orchestrate the assassination of attorney Pannun for his political opinion on Khalistan and his activism — notably, promotion of the global Khalistan Referendum.
The complaint says it was RAW agent Gupta who hired the assassins to kill Pannun, a Canadian and US national, at the same time of killing Nijjar in Canda but these efforts were overseen by Defendant Yadav, a senior officer in India’s RAW, ,and approved by Defendant Goel, the Chief of RAW, and Defendant Doval (the national security advisor), both of whom reported directly to Modi.
The lawsuit says: “RAW’s assassins killed Nijjar in Canada on June 18, 2023, but the scheme to murder Pannun unravelled when the hitmen India tried to hire turned out to be undercover US law enforcement agents. The US captured and indicted Gupta. But the Government of India denies responsibility. 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 US soil.
“Defendants’ efforts to kill Pannun are part of a broader policy by successive Indian governments to violently suppress dissent that has resulted in the June 1984 Indian military’s attack and massacre of pilgrims at the holiest Sikh Shrine — the Golden Temple of Amritsar — the ‘Sikh Genocide’ in November 1984, arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions of Sikhs, misuse and manipulation of the criminal justice system, use of colonial era ‘sedition laws’, use of the draconian ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act’ (UAPA), and issuing INTERPOL Red Notices based on trumped-up charges, including against Pannun.”
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.
“Pannun at this time has not named Narendra Modi as a defendant due to the immunity he now enjoys under US and international law as head of a foreign sovereign government. However, 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 legal action states: “Unable to force Pannun and other activists back to India through the INTERPOL system, India has resorted to orchestrating the murder of Sikhs in North America and other foreign countries. A recent exposé by the Guardian newspaper has revealed that India has now turned to extrajudicial killings as a means of quashing dissent. The government agency responsible for these murders is RAW. The Guardian’s investigation, based upon intelligence documents provided by intelligence officials within both India and Pakistan, has tied RAW to more than 20 killings outside of India since 2020.”
The lawsuit lists the cause of actions as: the Defendants have intentionally caused Pannun to become concerned that Defendants or their cohorts are about to cause a harmful or offensive bodily contact to Pannun and as a result of Defendants’ conduct, Pannun has suffered damages in an amount to be proven at trial; the Defendants intentionally tried and are trying to cause 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, Pannun has suffered severe emotional distress.
