The United States Secret Service Officials, who were guarding the Indian delegation during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, thwarted Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s attempts to serve summons to Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval who was accompanying the PM. The development was confirmed by a US court hearing civil lawsuit filed by Pannun about an alleged murder plot against him, which American authorities said was planned by an Indian government agent.
The court in Southern District of New York found that service of summons was not completed. “The Complaint was not delivered to a member of the hotel management or staff or any officers or agents providing security for Defendant, as required by the Court’s Order,” it said.
As per the US court, Pannun hired two process servers and one investigator to place the summon outside the US president’s guest house in Washington DC, where Doval was staying during the latter’s 2-day trip to the US. The servers were stopped by US Secret Service agents guarding the Indian delegation and threatened with arrest.
The notice was in response to a civil lawsuit filed by Pannun in the murder-for-hire plot for which American authorities had blamed an Indian government agent named Vikash Yadav. The Indian government has conducted a probe into the issue and recommended legal action against Yadav.
Pannun’s lawyer told the court that the that the US Secret Service agents’ denial of entry to the server to place the notice at the Blair House server forced him to leave the notice with a nearby Starbucks store, which was the nearest public location where the server would not be arrested.
After reviewing the letter, a judge of the Southern District of New York said that “the complaint was not delivered to a member of the hotel management or staff or any officers or agents providing security for Defendant (Doval), as required by the court’s order,” reported the Times of India.
The development confirms the Indian position that the NSA wasn’t served the summons. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had described the claims as based on unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations.
The Pannun murder plot had snowballed into a major diplomatic row last year. The Biden administration not just sought accountability but also backed similar charges by Canada over the murder of another Khalistan leader named Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Later, India set up a high-powered enquiry committee to probe the activities of some organised criminal groups and terrorist organisations, “which undermined the security interests of both India and the United States”.
In November 2023, the UK newspaper Financial Times reported that the United States had foiled a plot to assassinate Pannun. This was later confirmed by officials from the Joe Biden administration.
Indian national Nikhil Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic last year and extradited to the US to face charges for his alleged involvement in the plot. His case will go to trial on November 3, 2025.