NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday rejected what it described as “fabricated and malicious attacks” on senior Indian officials after federal court summons were issued in the United States in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
“We reject the fabricated and malicious attacks on our high officials, as also the frivolous lawsuits,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the ministry’s weekly briefing.
Jaiswal said requests for the service of judicial documents in India can only be routed through the designated central authority, the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The summons, reported last month, name National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Samant Goel, among others.
The civil lawsuit concerns an alleged plot to kill Pannun in New York in 2023. It is separate from a US criminal case against Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national who was arrested in the Czech Republic in 2023 and later extradited to the United States.
US prosecutors allege that Gupta conspired with others to hire a hitman to kill Pannun and worked with Vikash Yadav, whom the indictment links to the R&AW. The civil case is pending, and no findings have been recorded against the officials named in the lawsuit.
India has said it formed a committee to examine concerns raised by Washington and described the lawsuit as “unwarranted and unsubstantiated”. Yadav is facing a case in an Indian court.
(With inputs from media reports)