A US court has summoned the Indian government after General counsel for the pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, initiated a civil lawsuit in a US federal district court against the Indian government, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and others. Pannun claimed damages for an alleged assassination attempt against him on United States soil last year.
Pannun, who is a US-Canadian dual citizen of Indian origin, is designated by India as a terrorist. Last year he indirectly threatened to blow up an Air India plane flying on Nov 19 urging Sikhs not to fly on that day by the airline.
Murder-for-hire allegations were slapped against Indian national Nikhil Gupta on the US soil whom the United States claims to have conspired with another Indian to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Gupta, 53, was arrested by Czech officials in June last year and extradited to the US this year in June. The US has claimed they have material that shows an Indian staffer asked Gupta to plan the killing. Gupta is accused of attempting to hire hitmen to kill Pannun.
The civil case includes “possible defendants whose identities are not yet known.” “This lawsuit seeks to hold the GOI and a number of high-ranking officials there accountable under US tort law,”
Pannun’s counsel, Matthew Borden of Braun Hagey & Borden LLP. “We aim to hold everyone involved in this plot accountable.”
According to reports, Pannun alleges he is being targeted because he campaigns for the creation of Khalistan.
