India rejects Pannun's civil suit against Doval and Goel after a US court allows a service attempt through Indian courts

India's foreign ministry on Tuesday, 10 November, rejected a civil lawsuit filed in the United States by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun against Indian officials, after a US federal court allowed him to try to serve it on two of them through Indian courts, per Asianet Newsable and The Tribune, which carries an ANI report. This piece is as of the evening of 10 November. Pannun's claims are allegations in a civil case; no court has found them proved.

The order and the ministry's response

The order is dated 9 November and comes from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, with Judge Katherine Polk Failla presiding. It allows Pannun to pursue service of summons on National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and former Research and Analysis Wing chief Samant Goel through Indian courts (The Tribune). Pannun has been asked to submit a proposed packet by 30 November, containing the summons, a proposed order on the method of service, the relevant Indian legal provisions and documents about earlier attempts to serve the papers under the Hague Convention. The court would then consider them before its clerk sends the packet to the Indian courts concerned, the same report says. It adds that the ruling concerns the procedure for serving documents and is not a finding on the allegations.

Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told the briefing that India rejects "the fabricated and malicious attacks on our high officials" and the "frivolous lawsuits". He said a request to serve judicial documents in India can only go through India's designated central authority, the Ministry of Law and Justice (Asianet Newsable).

The suit and the related criminal case

Pannun filed the lawsuit in September 2024, naming the Government of India, Doval, Goel, Nikhil Gupta, Vikash Yadav and other unnamed people, and alleges Indian officials were involved in a plot to assassinate him in New York in 2023 (Asianet Newsable). Outlook gives the filing date as 17 September 2024 and says the civil complaint names a defendant it calls Vikram Yadav, a former RAW officer, separate from the Vikash Yadav named in the criminal case; the outlets' accounts of the defendants differ on this point.

Gupta pleaded guilty in February 2026 to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering over a failed plot targeting a US citizen and Sikh activist, Mint reports, citing the Justice Department; it adds that he faces up to 40 years. Outlook says US prosecutors said he worked at the direction of Vikash Yadav, an Indian government employee. India has rejected allegations of government involvement, per Outlook.

When the papers were delivered

Mint says the State Department on Monday served summonses on the Government of India through diplomatic channels, and said it was legally obliged to do so and takes no position on the case. Outlook cites a State Department letter to the court, dated 20 October and filed on 28 October, saying the documents were delivered to the Indian Embassy in Washington under a diplomatic note signed on 30 September and delivered on 9 October, and that the transmission does not establish the department's position on whether service was legally effected. We have not reconciled the two accounts.