US court lets Pannun serve his lawsuit on NSA Ajit Doval and ex-RAW chief

A US court has allowed Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to serve his civil lawsuit on National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and a former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). RAW is India’s external intelligence agency.

The court passed the order on 9 November, after the US State Department tried to serve papers on the Indian officials through the Indian Embassy, The Hindu reported. The Hindu named the former intelligence chief as Mr. Goyal.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) rejected the charges as “frivolous” and called Mr. Pannun’s case “fabricated and malicious”, the paper reported.

The background

Mr. Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen, leads Sikhs for Justice, a group banned in India. India has named him a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

In his lawsuit, filed in New York, he accuses Indian officials of a plot to kill him in the US in 2023. US prosecutors have charged an Indian man, Nikhil Gupta, over the alleged plot. India has said it does not support such acts and set up its own inquiry.

Serving the papers is the formal step that brings a defendant into a civil case.

The court’s next date in the case was not known when this story was published.