LONDON – The General Counsel of the pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, along with 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.
The lawsuit is in response to what they describe as an “unprecedented attempt to assassinate a US citizen on US soil”.
The legal action was announced at a global press conference by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his lawyers Matthew Borden, Partner & co-founder BraunHagey & Borden LLP, and Richard Rogers, Partner at Global Diligence LLP. The lawsuit, filed at the United States District Court in New York, accuses the Indian government and senior officials of an 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 plan was thwarted when the hitmen hired by Gupta turned out to be undercover federal agents.
According to the complaint, the plot was part of a broader effort to eliminate prominent Sikh activists who advocate for the right to self-determination for Sikh people in the Indian region of Punjab, speak out against the persecution of religious minorities, and condemn human rights abuses by the regime of Prime Minister Modi.
The intended murder of Attorney Pannun was supposed to occur around the same time as the (successful) assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a close ally of Pannun and head of the Khalistan Referendum Canada chapter, 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. At the same time, 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 Mr Pannun],” the complaint alleges, even as Prime Minister 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 organize the global Khalistan Referendum voting for the 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 organizing 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Pannun’s counsel, Matthew Borden. “We aim to hold everyone involved in this plot accountable.”
“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. Pannun runs the Khalistan Referendum campaign. It’s a peaceful campaign and involves no terrorism or guns or violence. India has shown no proof that Pannun has ever broken the law. India’s murder plot is a worrying trend, targeting Sikhs.”
The case states that in November 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an 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. According to the U.S. 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 as killing Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. Still, 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), who reported directly to Modi.
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.
“Defendants’ efforts to kill Mr 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 Mr. 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 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 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 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 Mr 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 follows: 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.
