According to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has seized the properties that Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, the leader of the outlawed Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) organization, had in Chandigarh and Amritsar.
A property confiscation notice pasted outside Pannu’s residence at sector 15 in Chandigarh reads, “1/4th share of house no. #2033 Sector 15-C, Chandigarh, owned by Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a ‘proclaimed offender’ in NIA case RC- 19/2020/NIA/DLI, stands confiscated to the state under section 33(5) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 by orders of the NIA special court, SAS Nagar, Mohali, Punjab, Dated 14/09/2023. This is for the general public’s information.
A similar warning was posted on Gurpatwant Singh Pannu’s farmland in the Amritsar village of Khankot, which is where he originally came from. In connection with a terror case reported in 2020, the central investigation agency has seized 46 kanals of Pannu’s agricultural land in the village.
Before the partition, Mohinder Singh Pannu, Pannu’s father, lived in the Tarn Taran village of Nathu Chak in the Patti subdivision. The family relocated to Amritsar’s Khankot hamlet during the split.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannu is one of the founders of the separatist organization Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which is based in the US and actively campaigns for Khalistan, or a separate state for Sikhs, in the US, Canada, and the UK.
The Union Home Ministry declared Pannu a terrorist in July 2020, and two months later the government issued an order to seize his property in accordance with Section 51A of the strict Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
He has been a leading organizer of the so-called Khalistan Referendum, inviting Sikhs worldwide to vote on whether Punjab should become an independent nation based on religion. He also worked closely with Canada-based Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose murder has been at the centre of the diplomatic standoff between Ottawa and New Delhi.