LONDON/NEW YORK Officials of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for their “unprecedented attempt to assassinate an American citizen on American 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 and co-founder of BraunHagey and Borden LLP and Richard Rogers, Partner at Global Diligence LLP. The lawsuit in United States District Court in New York by Pannun and his lawyers against the Indian government and senior Indian intelligence officials — namely, Ajit Doval, Samant Goel, Vikram Yadav and Nikhil Gupta.
The complaint alleges that senior officials of India’s RAW spy agency, which reports directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hired arms dealer and RAW operative Nikhil Gupta to hire hitmen in the US to assassinate Pannun in New York. This plan was thwarted when the assassins hired by Gupta turned out to be undercover federal agents.
According to the complaint, the plot was part of a larger effort to kill prominent Sikh activists who support the right to self-determination for Sikhs in India’s Punjab region, speak out against the persecution of religious minorities and condemn human rights abuses by the prime minister’s regime. Monty.
The assassination of Attorney Pannun is supposed to have happened around the same time as India’s (successful) assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a close ally of the head of the Pannun chapter and Khalistan Referendum Canada – in Canada on June 18, 2023.
The US Department of Justice charged Gupta in New York with “murder for hire” in the plot to target Pannoon, while Canada recently arrested and charged four Indian nationals with first-degree murder in Nijjar’s murder.
“The Government of India denies responsibility [for the hit it ordered on Pannun]”, the complaint claims, even as Prime Minister Modi boasted at a political rally “that ‘even India’s enemies know that this is Modi, this is the new India, he can come into your house and kill you’ .
“This case is about India’s responsibility for its crime of transnational repression against pro-Sikhs. The Government of India cannot stop the Khalistan Referendum through threats and intimidation. I will continue to organize the global referendum. of Khalistan 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 because I organized the Referendum in Khalistan, I am taking legal action to hold the Modi government accountable and RAW officers for their involvement in transnational terrorism against Sikhs at home and abroad,” Pannun said while filing his suit.
“In this country we have free speech and the rule of law. When a foreign government seeks to export tyranny and murder, our citizens have the right to seek redress in the courts,” said Pannun Councilor Matthew Borden. “Our goal is to hold everyone involved in this plot accountable.”
“I know Modi you are still trying to kill me and trying to hire agents to kill me but keep in mind I will not stop at any cost and I will not compromise,” he said.
According to Richard J Rogers, Pannun’s international lawyer: “India has been trying to silence Pannun for years — first by abusing Interpol’s red alert system by falsifying evidence against him, and now by abusing its friendship with the US by hiring assassins to to kill him. Pannun is campaigning for the Referendum in Khalistan. It is a peaceful campaign and does not involve terrorism or weapons or violence. India has shown no evidence that Pannun has ever broken the law. The conspiracy to kill India is a worrying trend, targeting Sikhs.”
The case states that in November 2023, the US Department of Justice filed an indictment against an Indian national, Gupta, on charges of committing and conspiring to commit the “Murder-for-hire” of an American citizen, Pannun, on US soil. According to the US Department of Justice indictment, acting on behalf of Indian government officials, Gupta attempted to orchestrate the assassination of lawyer Pannun for his political views on Khalistan and his activism – specifically, promoting the global referendum Khalistan.
The complaint states that it was RAW agent Gupta who hired the assassins to kill Pannun, a Canadian and American national, at the same time as Nijjar was killed in Canda, but these efforts were overseen by accused Yadav, a senior officer in RAW of India, and was approved by accused Goel, the head of RAW, and accused Doval (the national security adviser), who reported directly to Modi.
The lawsuit says: “RAW assassins killed Nijjar in Canada on June 18, 2023, but the plan to kill Pannun was revealed when the assassins India tried to hire turned out to be undercover US law enforcement agents. The US arrested and indicted Gupta. But the Indian government 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 US citizen on US soil.
“The defendants’ attempts to assassinate Pannun are part of a wider policy by successive Indian governments of violent suppression of dissent that resulted in the June 1984 Indian army attack and massacre of pilgrims at the holiest Sikh temple — the Golden Temple Amritsar — the “Sikh.” Genocide’ in November 1984, arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions of Sikhs, abuse and manipulation of the criminal justice system, use of colonial ‘sedition laws’, use of the draconian ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act’ (UAPA), and issuing INTERPOL red notices based on trumped-up charges, including Pannun.”
The suit says India’s investigation confirmed that a “rogue agent” was solely responsible for targeting India “but that investigation was a sham” and “a recent Washington Post investigation revealed that the assassination plan was carried out by Yadav while he was working for RAW and was running the Indian spy agency from the inside.”
The New York Court has jurisdiction over the claims against Doval, Goel, Yadav and Gupta pursuant to 28 USC § 1332(a) and the Court has jurisdiction over the claims against the Government of India pursuant to the Alien Sovereign Immunities Act , 28 USC § 1605.
“Pannun has not at this time named Narendra Modi as a defendant because of the immunity he now enjoys under US and international law as the head of a foreign sovereign government. However, Pannun reserves the right to amend the complaint to include Narendra Modi as a defendant if his status as head of state changes during these proceedings,” the suit says.
The lawsuit says India has committed genocide against Sikhs at home, but has not limited its effort to silence Sikh activism within its own borders. India has turned diplomatic missions in foreign countries into spy networks for its government. India 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 tried to intimidate members of the Sikh community by warning them that their relatives in India would face dire consequences if they supported the referendum. Consular officials abroad have also denied official documents (such as birth or death certificates) to supporters of the referendum in Khalistan. India also tried to use INTERPOL’s red notice system to force many Sikh activists abroad to return to India for prosecution.”
The legal action states: “Unable to force Pannun and other activists back to India through the INTERPOL system, India has resorted to orchestrating the killing of Sikhs in North America and other foreign countries. A recent Guardian newspaper exposé revealed that India has now turned to extrajudicial killings as a means of quashing dissent. The government agency responsible for these killings is RAW. The Guardian investigation, based on intelligence documents provided by intelligence officials in both India and Pakistan, has linked RAW to more than 20 killings outside India since 2020.”
The lawsuit lists the cause of actions as follows: Defendants intentionally caused Pannun to fear that the defendants or their cohorts were going to cause harmful or offensive physical contact with Pannun, and as a result of the defendants’ conduct, Pannun suffered damages in the amount of which must be proven at trial; the defendants intentionally attempted and are attempting to cause Pannun extreme emotional distress, and the defendants conducted themselves in a manner so shocking and outrageous as to exceed all reasonable bounds of decency. and as a direct result of defendants’ conduct, Pannun suffered severe emotional distress.
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