A US court has ruled that no complaint was delivered to India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval during his visit to Washington in February.
The court dismissed Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s claim that legal documents, including a summons, had been served on Doval.
“The Court has reviewed the above letter and attached exhibits... and finds that service was not completed. The Complaint was not delivered to a member of the hotel management or staff or any officers or agents providing security for Defendant, as required by the Court's Order,” US district judge Katherine Polk Failla said in the order.
Pannun, in court filings, claimed that during Doval’s visit to Washington on February 12-13, when he accompanied prime minister Narendra Modi for a meeting with US president Donald Trump, he had “hired two process servers and one investigator” to serve the complaint on the NSA.
An attempt was made on February 12 at Blair House, the President’s Guest House, where Modi and his delegation were staying.
Pannun said security was tight, with barricades and a checkpoint guarded by US Secret Service agents.
According to him, the individual attempting to serve the complaint informed an agent that he had a court order allowing the documents to be delivered to any Secret Service member providing security.
“He showed the Secret Service agent a copy of this Court's Order, but the agent refused to accept any documents and told the individual to leave the checkpoint,” Pannun stated in court papers.
Pannun also claimed that the individual feared arrest if he took further action.
A second attempt was made on February 13 when another individual tried to serve the documents at Blair House.
Pannun’s filings state that three Secret Service agents, including a sergeant, stopped him at the checkpoint and refused to accept the documents or allow him beyond the checkpoint.
The individual then said he would place the documents on the ground, but one of the agents warned that doing so would lead to his arrest.
Eventually, he left the documents at a nearby coffee shop and informed the Secret Service agents, asking them to collect and deliver them to Doval.
Pannun argued in court that this constituted serving the complaint, but the court rejected his claim.
Pannun has filed a civil lawsuit against Doval and Nikhil Gupta. Gupta has been charged by US prosecutors in an indictment, accusing him of working with an Indian government employee in an alleged foiled plot to kill Pannun on American soil.
(With inputs from PTI)
Damian Talbot