‘Unwarranted, Unsubstantiated Imputations’, Says FS Misri On US Court Summons On ‘Pannun Murder Plot’

Summons come days before PM Modi heads to US for 3-day visit. He is scheduled to meet US President Joe Biden as well as former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

File image of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

Source : PTI

New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Thursday issued a stern statement on a US court’s summons to senior Indian government officials in connection with an alleged plot to kill Sikh radical Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a designated terrorist in India.

The summons have been issued by the US District Court for Southern District of New York, on the basis of a civil case filed by Pannun, a US-Canadian citizen who is reportedly seeking damages for the alleged plot, which is currently under investigation in the US. The defendants named include National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, among others, and the summons come days before PM Narendra Modi arrives in the US for a three-day visit from September 21-23 for the Quad Summit and the UN Summit of the Future.

At a media briefing on the PM’s US visit, Misri said the case was based on “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations”. 

“As we’ve 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. I would only invite your attention to the person behind this particular case whose antecedents are well known,” Misri said.

Referring to Pannun’s pro-Khalistan outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) as an “unlawful organisation”, the Foreign Secretary said, “I would also underline the fact that the organisation so-called that this person represents is an unlawful organisation, has been declared as such under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 and it has been done so on account of its involvement in anti-national and subversive activities aimed at disrupting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”

The defendants named in the US court’s summons include the Government of India, Doval, and former R&AW chief Samant Goel. Summons have also been issued in the name of Nikhil Gupta and Vikram Yadav — the key accused in the alleged murder plot.

Gupta, 52, was extradited from the Czech Republic to the US in June in connection with the case. He was apprehended in the Czech Republic in 2023 at the request of the US government. 

According to his attorney, Jeffrey Chabrowe, Gupta was produced before a New York federal court in June where he pleaded not guilty.

US federal prosecutors allege that Gupta, at the behest of an “Indian government employee”, hired a hitman to kill Pannun, for which he made an advance payment of $15,000. But Gupta has denied the charges through his attorney, maintaining that he was being unfairly charged.

The Pannun matter is likely to come up during Modi’s visit to the US.

“As we have said earlier, whatever issues are of mutual concern between India and America, we discuss them all. Whether any specific issue will be raised or not, I cannot confirm at this time, but I can definitely say that we will discuss all the issues,” said Misri.

‘All Issues Will Be Discussed’

Modi’s visit to the US is his first to the country since he came to power for the third consecutive term in June, and comes in the thick of the US presidential election campaign. Over the three days, he will be visiting Delaware and New York. 

On September 21, Modi will be in Wilmington, Delaware, where he will be attending the Quad Summit along with US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Anthony Albanese, and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida. He will also be holding a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden at his Delaware residence. His engagements include a meeting with former US President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

On 23 September, the PM will be addressing the UN’s ‘Summit of the Future (SoTF)’ at the UN General Assembly in New York, but he will not be joining the annual debate there, which will be presided over by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

The origin of the SoTF can be traced to the report ‘Our Common Agenda (OCA)’ of the Secretary General submitted to the UNGA in September 2021. One of the recommendations of the OCA was a proposal for a ‘Summit of the Future’.

The theme of the Summit is ‘Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow’. UN Secretary General António Guterres has called the summit a “once-in-a-generation UN Summit”.

The SoTF is an important milestone in the history of the UN as it enters the 80th year of its establishment in 2025. A pact for the future (with its two annexes, ‘Global Digital Compact’ and ‘Declaration on Future Generations’), will be the outcome document of the SoTF.

India To Engage Deeply In US-led IPEF But Won’t Join Trade Pillar Yet

During the PM’s visit to the US, both sides will also sign an agreement on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The IPEF is structured around four pillars relating to Trade (Pillar I), Supply Chains (Pillar II), Clean Economy (Pillar III), and Fair Economy (Pillar IV). India has joined Pillars II to IV of IPEF while it has an observer status in Pillar I.

India will be signing the pacts on clean economy and fair economy as both have been ratified. But India will not be joining the trade pillar yet, said Misri.

”We had earlier joined the supply chain pillar… That was the first pillar that we had joined. There are two more pillars. I think Pillar III is related to the clean economy, and Pillar IV is related to a fair economy, and there is an overarching agreement. We are joining pillars III and IV and the overarching agreement. So, at the end of this exercise, we would have done II, III, IV, and the overarching agreement," he added. "So, these agreements, in a sense, the work on signing and ratifying them has already been done and the event that will take place in Wilmington will be essentially depositing our instruments of ratification with the US Department of State, which is the repository for these agreements. Work and discussion on the trade pillar continue at this point in time.”

The decision not to participate in the IPEF’s trade pillar was taken during its third ministerial by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in 2022. In 2023, too, New Delhi chose to not join the trade pillar of the IPEF.

The matter came up for discussion during the last US-India Trade Policy Forum that took place in January 2024.

The US is the largest trading partner of India with overall bilateral trade in goods and services totalling $190.1 billion for calendar year 2023.