Pannun sues India in US court over murder plot

New York-based lawyer and general counsel of the pro-Khalistan group ‘Sikhs for Justice’ (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, through his lawyers, has filed a civil lawsuit in the US Federal District Court against the Government of India and senior officials of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) for their “unprecedented attempt to assassinate a US citizen on US soil”.

The announcement of the legal action was made at a global press conference addressed by Khalistani leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his lawyers Matthew Borden, Partner & Co-Founder at BraunHagey& Borden LLP and Richard Rogers, Partner at Global Diligence LLP. The legal action was filed in the United States District Court, New York, by Pannun and his lawyers against the Indian government and senior officials of the Indian intelligence agency – namely AjitDoval, SamantGoel, VikramYadav 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, hired arms dealer and RAW agent Nikhil Gupta to hire hitmen in the US to assassinate Pannun in New York. The plan 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 attempt to assassinate prominent Sikh activists who advocate for the right to self-determination of the Sikh people in India’s Punjab region, are critical of the persecution of religious minorities and condemn human rights violations by Prime Minister Modi’s regime.

The assassination of lawyer Pannun is believed to have occurred at about the same time as India’s (successful) assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a close ally of Pannun and the head of the Khalistan Referendum Canada chapter – in Canada on June 18, 2023.

The US Department of Justice has charged Gupta in New York with “murder for hire” over the plot to kill Pannun, while Canada recently arrested and charged four Indian nationals with first-degree murder over the killing of Nijjar.

“The Indian government denies responsibility (for the attack it ordered on Mr. Pannun),” the complaint reads, while 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 house 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 to vote for the liberation of Punjab from India. And if the price of independence is death, I am ready to face it. India tried to assassinate me for organizing the Khalistan Referendum. I am taking legal action to hold the Modigovt and RAW officers accountable for their involvement in transnational terrorism against Sikhs at home and abroad,” Mr. Pannun said while filing his lawsuit.