The Indian government and several senior security officials have been named in a civil lawsuit filed in a US court over an conspiracy to assassinate Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.
The legal proceedings have taken a significant step forward after the US District Court for the Southern District of New York allowed Pannun to serve court summonses on Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel through Indian courts.
The lawsuit also names former RAW officer Vikram Yadav, Indian national Nikhil Gupta and the Government of India among the defendants.
In a November 9 order, US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla approved Pannun’s request to serve legal documents on Doval and Goel through designated courts in Delhi. The court directed Pannun to submit the proposed service documents by November 30 before they are formally transmitted to the Indian courts.
Separately, the US State Department confirmed that it had delivered the summons, complaint and notice of the lawsuit against the Indian government to the Indian Embassy in Washington through diplomatic channels on October 9.
The case stems from Pannun’s allegations that Indian government officials were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate him in New York in 2023 because of his activities in the Khalistan movement.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2024, seeks damages over the alleged assassination plot and names several Indian officials and individuals as defendants.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has rejected the lawsuit, describing the allegations as fabricated and malicious. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi also rejected what it called frivolous legal proceedings and maintained that requests for serving judicial documents in India must be routed through the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The civil lawsuit is separate from the criminal proceedings against Nikhil Gupta in the United States. Gupta pleaded guilty in February 2026 to charges linked to the alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy.
