New Delhi: A New York court ruled earlier this month that summons were not successfully served on National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in a case filed by pro-Khalistan separatist lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, as the Secret Service guarding the official guest house refused to accept them during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Washington in February.
On Sep 18, 2024, the US District Court for Southern District of New York issued summons to the Government of India and individually to Doval, former RAW chief Samant Goel, former RAW officer ‘Vikram Yadav’ as well as, detained Indian national Nikhil Gupta, in a civil suit filed by Pannun.
The suit was based on the indictment filed by US prosecutors against Nikhil Gupta, accusing him of attempting to hire a hitman to assassinate Pannun on the instructions of then unnamed Delhi-based RAW officer.
A month later, another indictment was unsealed in October 2024 which formally named a former RAW operative Vikash Yadav as the mastermind of the plot. In January this year, the Indian government implicitly accepted the charges, with a public statement issued that a high-powered government committee had recommended “legal action” against “an individual”.
On February 12, the day the Indian Prime Minister was set to arrive in Washington, D.C., the US court granted Pannun permission for “alternative service,” allowing the summons to be delivered to any Secret Service agents providing security for Doval during his visit.
Doval was accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was staying at Blair House, the official residence for foreign dignitaries in the United States. It was the first visit by the Indian PM after Donald Trump started his second term in January.
Notably, Doval had skipped the last visit of the Indian PM to the US during former President Joe Biden’s term that took place in the second half of September 2024.
According to a February 26 letter submitted to the court, Pannun’s legal team detailed multiple failed attempts to serve Doval at Blair House.
The first attempt took place on the evening of February 12, just an hour after Modi’s scheduled arrival. The letter noted that the process server named Ambiko Wallace reported that the area was heavily secured, with barricades and a single checkpoint manned by Secret Service agents.
Despite presenting the court order permitting service on security personnel, Wallace was denied access and instructed to leave. He was also not allowed to speak to a supervisor. “The agent also refused to provide his name or to permit Mr. Wallace to speak to a supervisor. Mr Wallace feared that if he took any further action he would be arrested,” said the letter.
A second process server, Wayne Engram, tried again the next day at midday. At that time, as per the PM’s schedule, Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy was calling on Modi at Blair House.
Engram was also stopped at the checkpoint by three Secret Service agents who refused to accept the summons, even after he showed them the court order. “Left with no other option, Mr. Engram told the agents that he would place the envelope containing the service documents on the ground in front of them – a standard method of service Mr. Engram has used many times in his fifteen years as a process server. (Id.) However, one of the agents told Mr. Engram that if he left the documents on the ground, agents would arrest him,” the letter stated.
Thereafter, Engram placed the envelope containing the summons in a public seating area outside a nearby Starbucks coffee shop and informed the agents of its location. “One of the agents said “OK” and gave Mr Engram a military salute,” recounted the letter.
That same day, Pannun’s legal team also emailed the summons, complaint and court order to Blair House executive director Elizabeth Lewis, requesting that she pass them to the senior Indian official.
They argued that service was complete under the court’s order, which permitted delivery of the documents to Secret Service officers, even if it was not “accepted” by the recipient.
However, in the March 3 ruling, Judge Katherine Polk Failla determined that these efforts did not meet the court’s requirements for valid service. The judge noted that the documents were neither delivered to Blair House staff nor accepted by any security officers, thereby failing to comply with the conditions set in the court’s February 12 order.
So far, only Gupta, who is awaiting trial in a federal prison, has apparently been successfully served summons in the case in November last year.
Based on a court order, there is a deadline of June 19 for the summons to be served to the defendants.
