New Delhi rejects 'unwarranted' charges as US court summons Indian officials over alleged murder plot

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - The Indian government has rejected the “unwarranted” charges after the US-based Sikh separatist group filed a lawsuit over an alleged murder plot.

Pannun, the general counsel for Sikhs for Justice -- a US-based group that is part of a movement pushing for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan in northern India -- has been designated a "terrorist" by the Indian government.

“As we have said earlier, these are completely unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations. Now that this particular case has been lodged, it doesn’t change our views about the underlying situation,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters in the capital New Delhi on Thursday evening.

Misri was briefing reporters about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming trip to the US.

While referring to Pannun, Misri said “the organization, so-called, that this person represents is an unlawful organization, has been declared as such under the Unlawful Activities,” in the country.

Pannun, wrote on X -- his account is withheld in India: “US District Court for Southern District of New York issued summons against government of India in the civil lawsuit on the issues of 'murder for hire plot' and transnational repression.”

Last November, India said it was probing the US concerns over a foiled assassination plot.

The probe announcement came after Washington had notified New Delhi that it thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate the Sikh separatist leader on US soil.

The revelation about the foiled plot had come two months after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of allegedly being behind the shooting of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 last year.

Nijjar was killed in front of a Sikh temple in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia.

Earlier, New Delhi said any attempt to connect the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to killing plots in northern America was "absurd and motivated."