Anti-India academic Nitasha Kaul, whose OCI card was revoked by India, enlisted by the US as an expert witness in the Pannun assassination plot trial

The United States government has enlisted Indian-origin British academic Nitasha Kaul as an expert witness in the ongoing trial linked to assassination plot against Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. 

In its formal court document, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) stated that Professor Kaul will give evidence in the case. She is a ‘Professor’ of Politics, International Relations and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Westminster in London and also Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy there.

Based on the filing, Kaul will be testifying on several points, including that the Government of India publicly condemned Pannun and Hardeep Singh Nijjar for their terrorist activities. She should also say that India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), operates under the Cabinet Secretariat, is based at the CGO Complex in New Delhi, frequently employs officers from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and that its purpose includes quelling Sikh separatist movements.

This information is shared by an independent investigative journalist, Journalist V on his X account.

Lot of new filings in the Nikhil Gupta trial.

I'll make a thread here :

The US Govt has enlisted @NitashaKaul, recently in the news for having had her OCI cancelled, as an expert witness. pic.twitter.com/WmbQCRh4dU

— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) September 24, 2025

This move to invite Kaul as an expert witness has already stirred controversy in India due to her history of making anti-India statements and her long record of activism against Indian institutions.

Who is Nitasha Kaul?

Nitasha Kaul has often been described as an “anti-India propagandist” for her remarks and actions over the years. In May 2024, she took to social media to complain after the Indian government cancelled her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card. In her post, she accused the government of carrying out “transnational repression” and punishing her for what she called “scholarly work” critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

She wrote that she had been unfairly treated, recalling that earlier she had also been denied entry into India when she was invited by the Congress-led government of Karnataka to deliver a talk on democratic and constitutional values. 

According to her, despite sending a detailed 20,000-word response to the authorities, the government had gone ahead and revoked her OCI card. She claimed that this was a sign of India’s “thin-skinned, petty insecurity” that allegedly does not allow space for dissent.

However, the Indian government has made it clear that the OCI card is not a right but a privilege. OCI status is given to persons of Indian origin under specific conditions, but it can be revoked if the person is found indulging in activities that go against India’s sovereignty, constitutional values, or national security.

GOI cancelled her OCI card against a direct attempt to harm India’s sovereignty and integrity

In Nitasha’s case, the part of the document that she shared read, “AND WHEREAS, it has been brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been found indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history. Through your numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms, you regularly target India and its institutions on the matters of India’s sovereignty.”

The GoI categorically stated that her OCI card was revoked because of her anti-India activities. Nitasha has a long history of propagating an anti-India narrative.

In May 2024, she shared a fictional story to cast aspersions on the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). She claimed she had dreamt about EVMs not counting votes in India. She conjectured a make-believe story to lend credence to the conspiracy theory mainstreamed by the Congress party about the EVMs. She claimed, “Recently, at a workshop lunch, I was telling a British colleague that I’d not slept well the previous night due to dreams where people were voting on EVMs but votes were not being counted. A Turkish colleague overheard & said he too used to have troubled dreams during Erdogan’s elections in Turkey!”

In February 2024, she was deported upon arrival at Bengaluru airport based on a preventive lookout circular issued against her as Indian agencies had flagged her “pro-separatist” comments and statements and anti-India line stand on Kashmir taken on various public forums. Kaul said she was detained at the airport by the immigration officials, who cited “orders from Delhi” to not allow her entry into the country. She said that she possessed all the necessary documentation for her visit, but faced a challenging situation. She claimed she would continue to advocate “democracy and civil liberties” despite the “adversities faced”. She ranted on X following the deportation, just the way she has done now after the OCI card was revoked.

She had previously spread falsehoods about the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and participated in events organised by radical Islamic outfits such as ‘Stand With Kashmir (SWK)’, ‘Kashmir Solidarity Movement (KSM)’, and ‘Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC)’.

Kaul had been at the forefront of cancelling PM Modi’s address at the Wharton School of Business. The anti-India propagandist also mocked the death of former Chief of Defence Staff (CoDS) Bipin Rawat in December 2021.

Nitasha Kaul seemed to justify his untimely death by presenting him as an ‘enemy of Kashmiris’.

US government using an anti-India voice

The fact that the U.S. government has chosen someone with such a track record as an expert witness in the Pannun assassination plot trial has raised concerns in India. This can be considered as Washington deliberately giving space to an anti-India voice to build a narrative that paints New Delhi in a negative light.

Kaul’s testimony is expected to be used to establish that India has targeted Khalistani terrorists abroad, but her history of controversial and hostile remarks about India raises questions about her neutrality. 

For many, this looks like part of a broader attempt to corner India internationally at a time when New Delhi has strongly denied any involvement in assassination plots abroad.

Who is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun?

 Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is a US-based Khalistani terrorist who has citizenship in both the US and Canada. He poses as an attorney in the US and claims to be a frontrunner in the fight for the rights of Sikhs. 

In reality, he consistently propagates Khalistani sentiments and often issues threats against India. He has been actively promoting violence against Indian diplomats in Canada, the US and other countries where pro-Khalistani Sikhs have been living. 

He was designated as a terrorist by the Government of India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for his anti-India activities. His organisation, Sikhs For Justice, was also listed as a terrorist outfit by the Government of India.

The details of the case

The assassination plot against Pannun came to light last year when the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against two Indian nationals. The first, Vikash Yadav, was accused of directing the plot from India. Yadav, identified earlier only as “CC-1,” has since been officially charged. The second accused, Nikhil Gupta, was arrested in the Czech Republic and is currently in detention in Brooklyn.

According to the media reports, Yadav, who was once employed with India’s Cabinet Secretariat, tasked Gupta with finding a hitman in the U.S. to eliminate Pannun. 

The US Justice Department had reportedly claimed in an indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan that an unidentified Indian government employee named (CC-1) recruited an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta to hire an assassin to kill Pannu. Gupta was detained in Prague in June 2023 and was extradited to the US in June 2024.

The US allegations regarding the failed assassination of Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in November 2023 came months after then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged the involvement of Indian officials in the murder of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India has repeatedly rejected those allegations as baseless.

Now, with the U.S. pressing ahead in the Pannun plot case and using figures like Nitasha Kaul as expert witnesses, the matter has the potential to add another layer of strain in India’s relations with Washington.