US Secret Service ruined Pannun's plan to serve NSA Ajit Doval summons

A US court said that NSA Ajit Doval was not served his summons when accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US on February 12-13. The court, in its observation, brushed aside Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's claim that he had managed to get the notice delivered to Doval, The Times of India reported.

The court's response came to a letter from Pannun's lawyer and also revealed that US Secret Service agents guarding the location where the Indian officials were put up, threatened the server with arrest when he tried to place the notice on the ground outside what happens to be the President's guest house. The server ultimately left the summons with a nearby Starbucks store, which was not enough for the court.

This confirms India's position that Doval was not served the summons. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had described it as baseless and unwarranted imputations. These summons were issued last year in September by a US court after Pannun filed a lawsuit about an alleged murder plot against him, for which US authorities blamed an Indian government agent -- Vikash Yadav. The Modi govt subsequently carried out a probe into the matter and recommended legal action against Yadav. Meanwhile, Nikhil Gupta, another Indian national, remains in US custody over the plot and will go to trial on November 3 this year.

Pannun had reportedly gotten two process servers to give the summons to Doval. The first found the location barricaded, and the place teeming with Secret Service agents, at which time, they gave up on the venture. The second -- a more seasoned server -- tried keeping the summons on the ground, the next day, when Secret Service didn't let them in. However, the agent decried what was touted to be 'standard service' and threatened the server with arrest.

This is when they left it at the Starbucks. The Pannun issue had snowballed into a major controversy with the Biden administration seeking accountability and backing similar charges by Canada over the murder of separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.