Activist sues India in U.S. court over alleged plot that killed B.C. Sikh leader

A person walks past signs of Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., Friday, May 3, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns)

A Sikh independence activist is suing India for its alleged role in what's described in court documents as two co-ordinated attacks, including one that resulted in the death of a temple leader in British Columbia.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, with the group Sikhs for Justice, says the civil lawsuit in the U.S. district court for southern New York is aimed at holding the Indian government accountable for alleged involvement in the shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., last year and a plot on Pannun soon after.

The allegations have not been proven in court, and the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., has not responded to a request for comment.

Nijjar was gunned down outside of a Sikh gurdwara where he was president on June 18, 2023, and four Indian nationals have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy in the killing.

U.S. authorities then announced last November that Indian national Nikhil Gupta was charged after an alleged murder-for-hire plot against Pannun in New York was foiled.

In the latest lawsuit filed by Pannun, the New York-based lawyer says gunmen in B.C. shot Nijjar 34 times "at point blank range before fleeing," and a video of Nijjar's "bloody body" was sent to Gupta "as a message to move forward" with the murder plot against Pannun.

"They were successful in killing Mr. Nijjar," says Matthew Borden, Pannun's lawyer, in a video call. "And the same thing would have happened to Mr. Pannun but for the fact that the person that Mr. Gupta tried to hire was an undercover U.S. agent."

The court documents also says Gupta instructed the undercover agents to "put everyone down" if Pannun was not alone at the time of the planned attack.

Gupta has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Pannun and Nijjar are prominent figures in the overseas Sikh independence movement seeking a separate state within India called Khalistan.

The movement has organized a number of non-binding referendums in overseas Sikh communities, including those in Metro Vancouver, calling for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland in India.

The Nijjar killing set off a diplomatic row between Canada and India after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament in 2023 that credible intelligence linked the murder to India's government.

India, which considers many involved in the Khalistani movement terrorists, extremists and militant separatists, has denied involvement in the Nijjar and Pannun cases.

India says it has set up a high-level inquiry into the Pannun case after being notified by U.S. authorities.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the United States over the weekend for a Leaders' Summit between the U.S., India, Japan and Australia.

Pannun says the goal of a civil lawsuit against India on top the current criminal case against Gupta is meant to send a message from overseas Sikh activist groups.

"This is about rule of law, in which no individual and no government — including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government — is above the law," Pannun says. "Holding Modi's government … accountable before the U.S. court will establish the principle of rule of law."

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.