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The US Department of Justice has officially revoked (denaturalize) the US citizenship of Gurmeet Singh, a 55-year-old former taxi driver of Indian origin. Gurmeet Singh is serving a 20-year rigorous prison sentence after being convicted in the case of kidnapping and brutal rape (First-Degree Rape & Second-Degree Kidnapping) of a female passenger at knife-point in New York in 2011. The US court found that Gurmeet Singh had deliberately concealed his heinous crime during the legal process of acquiring US citizenship (Naturalization) and had obtained the citizenship by fraud. What was the whole matter? The woman sleeping in the taxi was raped at knife point. According to the official release issued by the US Justice Department and court documents, this horrific incident took place in May 2011. At that time Gurmeet Singh used to drive a taxi in New York. A young female passenger traveling from Williamsburg to the East Village fell asleep in the taxi during the journey. Gurmeet Singh took him to some isolated place. When the victim woke up, she saw that Gurmeet was sitting on her and holding a knife to her throat and threatening to kill her. He tied the victim's hands and legs, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, blindfolded her, removed her clothes and brutalized her. Somehow, after saving her life, the victim ran away from the taxi in the morning and sought help from a passerby on the road. Crime hidden in the citizenship application, Gurmeet Singh, who became an American citizen through fraud, filed a formalization application for American citizenship a few weeks after committing this terrible crime. He kept his criminal activities hidden from federal authorities throughout the entire investigation process and on October 19, 2011, he fraudulently obtained American citizenship. He was later tried in a New York court and in 2014 was found guilty of first-degree rape and kidnapping and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is currently serving his sentence at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County. Order to surrender passport and citizenship certificate by September 16. The Civil Division of the US Justice Department had filed a case of denaturalization (cancellation of citizenship) against Gurmeet Singh on February 2 this year. After hearing the case, Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn, ordered the complete cancellation of Gurmeet Singh's citizenship. The court has directed that Gurmeet Singh will have to surrender his US passport and naturalization certificate before the court by September 16, 2026. 'Fraudfully obtained citizenship cannot protect criminals from justice', Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division of the US Justice Department, Brett A. Brett A. Shumate said in strong words that Gurmeet Singh had illegally obtained the privileges of American citizenship by concealing a terrible and despicable crime. He clarified that the US Justice Department is committed to maintaining the sanctity of the country's citizenship process and will continue to take strict action under the law against anyone who acquires citizenship by fraud or lying. Gurmeet Singh had reached America from India in 1992. Gurmeet Singh had gone to America from India for the first time in February 1992 on a 6-month temporary tourist visa. He stayed in America illegally for several years after his visa expired. She was later granted permanent residency (green card) in June 2000 through a visa petition filed by her family. Now, after being stripped of his American citizenship, there is every possibility of Gurmeet Singh being deported back to India after completing his 20-year jail sentence.