New Delhi/Chandigarh: Continuing its crackdown on finances of pro-Khalistan terror outfits and terrorists, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) confiscated the properties of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the US-based self-styled ‘general counsel’ of outlawed ‘Sikhs for Justice’ (SFJ), in Amritsar and Chandigarh.
The confiscated properties include 46 kanal agricultural land in Khankot village near Amritsar and one-fourth share of House No. 2033 in Sector 15C in Chandigarh. Though Pannun is based in the US, he had inherited these properties in India.
The two properties were earlier attached following orders passed by the government in two different cases. These properties were confiscated on the court’s orders under Section 33(5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, in a terror case registered by NIA on April 5, 2020. “This is the first time that the properties of an absconding accused of NIA have been confiscated under Section 33(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” said an NIA official.
The timing of NIA’s move is significant. It comes when India is at the receiving end of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s allegations about a “potential link” between the killing of criminal-turned-Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Indian agencies, something that India has rejected as “absurd”. Nijjar headed the Canada chapter of SFJ and his killing had led Pannun to threaten “retaliatory” strikes against Indian diplomats.
“Pannun has been playing a major role in promoting and commissioning terror acts and activities, and spreading fear and terror in Punjab and elsewhere in the country through his threats and intimidation tactics,” NIA said in a statement. Non-bailable warrants of arrest were issued against Pannun by an NIA court on February 3, 2021 and he was declared a ‘proclaimed offender’ on November 29, 2022.