Sikhs for Justice (SFJ)

What it is: Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) is a New York-based advocacy group. Wikipedia says it was founded in October 2007 by the lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is its general counsel, out of frustration that no one had been convicted for the killings of Sikhs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. It began with court cases over 1984 and now organises the Khalistan Referendum campaign.

The 1984 cases: SFJ sued Kamal Nath and other Congress leaders in 2011, and a US court dismissed the case because it did not sufficiently touch and concern the United States. In 2013 and 2014 it brought a class action against Sonia Gandhi under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act, accusing her of shielding Congress members involved in the killings. Judge Brian Cogan dismissed it in June 2014, and on 26 August 2015 the Second Circuit dismissed the claim, holding that the Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel barred it. Gandhi became Congress president only in 1998, more than a decade after the killings.

The Indian ban: India banned SFJ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on 10 July 2019, and a tribunal upheld the ban in January 2020. The government extended it for five years in July 2024, and on 3 January 2025 the tribunal upheld the extension. According to Bar & Bench, the tribunal found SFJ involved in recruiting and radicalising youth through social media, financing through smuggling networks, and issuing death threats to Indian leaders. India declared Pannun an “individual terrorist” in July 2020, which he denies.

The plot against Pannun

• 30 May to 9 June 2023: US prosecutors say Nikhil Gupta asked a confidential source whether he knew someone who could kill a New York lawyer, and a courier handed an undercover agent a $15,000 advance on 9 June.
• 30 June 2023: Czech authorities arrested Gupta in Prague.
• 29 November 2023: a superseding indictment was unsealed, saying an Indian government employee directed the plot from India.
• 13 February 2026: Gupta pleaded guilty in New York to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege Vikash Yadav, an Indian intelligence officer, directed him; Yadav is at large. Indian officials deny involvement. Sentencing is set for 20 November 2026.

Where it stands: SFJ remains banned in India and continues to run referendum votes abroad. Pannun told the Ottawa vote of November 2025 that its aim was a political defeat for Narendra Modi’s policies.