Pannun case: US serves summons to NSA Ajit Doval, former RAW chief Samant Goel

New Delhi: The US State Department, at the direction of a US court, has served summons to NSA Ajit Doval and former RAW chief Samant Goel through diplomatic channels in a civil lawsuit filed by Sikhs for Justice's Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The State Department served the summons through the Embassy of India in Washington DC.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters here on Tuesday that the lawsuit was "frivolous, fabricated and malicious".

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Jaiswal stressed that judicial documents in India must be routed through India's designated central authority, the Ministry of Law and Justice, rather than bypassing diplomatic channels.

Pannun's lawsuit names Ajit Doval and Samant Goel among the defendants. He has sought damages over an alleged attempt on his life and has accused Doval of orchestrating a plot involving RAW to assassinate him.

The civil lawsuit stems from the Department of Justice's (DoJ) investigation into Nikhil Gupta, an Indian drug and arms smuggler. He was arrested in the Czech Republic in 2023 and extradited to the United States.

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DoJ has charged Gupta with conspiring to hire a hitman to assassinate Pannun. It alleged that Gupta worked with Vikash Yadav, whom it said was affiliated with RAW. Gupta pleaded guilty to all charges against him earlier this year. His sentencing is scheduled for later this month.

While the Government of India formed a committee to examine the issues raised by the US government in the assassination case, and Yadav is currently facing a case in an Indian court, India dismissed Pannun's civil lawsuit as "unwarranted and unsubstantiated".