Us Court Sends Summons To Sonia Gandhi Over 1984 Anti Sikh Genocide

[Mehtab Singh]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/1984-Sikh-riots-US-court-summons-Sonia-Gandhi/articleshow/22282475.cms

NEW YORK: On a complaint by a Sikh group, a US federal court has issued summons against Congress party president Sonia Gandhi for shielding party officials allegedly involved in inciting attacks on Sikhs in November 1984, an attorney said.

In a class action suit filed on Tuesday before the district court of Eastern District of New York, "Sikhs For Justice" (SFJ), a US-based human rights group, and other victims of the November 1984 anti-Sikh violence have sought compensatory and punitive damages against Gandhi.

According to SFJ attorney Gurpatwant S Pannun, under federal rules, it has 120 days to serve the summons and complaint on Gandhi who is currently visiting the US for medical check-up.

The suit under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) accuses Gandhi of shielding and protecting Kamal Nath, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and other Congress party leaders from being prosecuted for their alleged role in the 1984 violence.

The 27-page complaint against Gandhi alleges that between November 1 and 4, 1984 about 30,000 members of the Sikh community "were intentionally tortured, raped and murdered by groups that were incited, organized, controlled and armed" by the ruling Congress party.

[ekgurjaskhalsa]

great initiative by SFJ

[JasSinghKhalsa]

SFJ - Hats off to you ...

[lsingh]

Published: September 11, 2013 00:22 IST | Updated: September 11, 2013 00:27 IST

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/guilty-congressmen-being-shamelessly-protected/article5113452.ece?css=print

‘Guilty Congressmen being shamelessly protected’

A U.S. court has issued summons to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on a complaint by a radical Sikh group, “Sikhs for Justice” (SFJ), that is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from her for protecting prominent Congressmen allegedly involved in engineering the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. Harvinder Singh Phoolka, the lawyer who has single-handedly been pursuing these cases with a missionary zeal for the last 29 years, speaks to The Hindu on whether this is the right approach to be taken to bring the guilty to book. Excerpts:

“Sikhs for Justice” argues that Ms Sonia Gandhi is guilty of protecting those responsible for the 1984 riots. Do you agree?

She definitely is. As president of the Congress party, she has given people like Kamal Nath and Jagdish Tytler high positions in the government and party, despite there being serious allegations against them. She may not have been party president in 1984 but in subsequent years she has gone out of her way to ensure that these people escape the law.

Because the current campaign to ambush Congress leaders with civil suits on the 1984 riots in foreign courts is run by radical Sikh organisations, some feel that the issue should be ignored because those who are pursuing it have a larger separatist agenda.

I think it should be viewed in reverse. The government should realise that if such organisations are using this issue to further their separatist goals then why not address it properly, instead of giving it to them to exploit? To say the riot victims’ quest for justice somehow becomes less important because the SFJ has taken it up strongly is wrong. The government is providing these organisations with an opportunity to use it.

The strategy of the SFJ and some other expatriate Sikh organisations is to embarrass the Congress’s leaders internationally, when they go abroad. Do you think this is the right approach?

As far as the issue of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is concerned, these leaders have become so thick-skinned that nothing affects them anymore. They are shamelessly protecting the guilty Congressmen. Therefore, they should be prepared to face this shame before the outside world.

How is the government shielding these people?

We have evidence to show that all these years there has been a massive cover-up to protect the guilty. Is it possible for a cover-up to happen without the knowledge of the party president?

What kind of cover-up?

Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar is an accused in the murder of four Sikhs. The FIR was registered in 1987 in the Nangloi police station and after five years the charge sheet was prepared. Despite the ACP and IO saying that there is enough evidence against Sajjan Kumar to try him, this charge sheet has still not been filed in court.

When there was a hue and cry in the media, he was not given a ticket for the 2009 election but his brother was given one and he himself holds a powerful position in the party.

Take the case of Kamal Nath, a senior minister in her government. Despite media reports and affidavits given by eyewitnesses including one by a senior independent journalist now based in London, that Kamal Nath led a mob of rioters that burnt down Gurudwara Rakabganj, no case has been registered against him. What more evidence do you need to register a case?

That amounts to inaction by the police. Are you saying that Sonia Gandhi should have intervened in the police investigation?

She is responsible for the police’s inaction. It is her party that is running the government. The officer responsible for much of the cover-up is today a DCP in the Prime Minister’s Office. This issue has been raised three times in Parliament. How can she not know?

She could have ensured that the police did its job and at least filed the missing charge sheet against Sajjan Kumar. Twice the government gave a clean chit to Mr. Tytler and both times the court rejected it.

I will say that she is intervening to give these men powerful posts and positions. Let her come out and say that she gave them important positions without knowing about their deeds in 1984. She needs to protect these people because the entire Congress party was complicit at that time.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has apologised in Parliament for the 1984 riots. Has that assuaged hurt sentiments somehow?

If an apology is as good as a conviction by the courts, then I would ask the government to change the law. Justice for the 1984 riot victims is an issue of upholding the law of the land. The law states that a person who has been witnessed committing a murder needs to be charged and tried. If you do not want to uphold the law and want to protect the murderers, then why not change the law?

You have always pointed out the differences between how cases of Muslim victims of the Gujarat riots were dealt with and the cases of Sikhs killed in 1984. Did the Bharatiya Janata Party also let you down in pursuing these cases?

In Gujarat, where 1,100 people were killed, the Congress took up the riots issue with such conviction and zeal that it led to 130 convictions, 10 death sentences and the conviction of one minister, Maya Kodnani. In the 1984 cases, where 3,000 people were killed in Delhi alone there have been only 30 convictions so far and all are inconsequent[ial] persons.

The BJP supports and helps me on this issue but not with the same zeal as shown by the Congress for the Gujarat riots. The BJP has never adopted it as its own issue and sees it more as a Sikh issue. They expect that I should go to the Akali Dal for assistance. Most often, the BJP uses the 1984 riots to counter allegations on the Gujarat riots.

I am ready to collaborate with any party for this. Even if Sonia Gandhi says that she will ensure justice for these Sikhs, I will stand with her. I have also collaborated with the so-called radical SFJ to seek out witnesses. My association with them is limited to this issue. I am not concerned with their ideological stance.

chander.dogra@thehindu.co.in

[Mehtab Singh]

She is back home.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who had gone abroad for a routine medical check-up, returned home this morning.

Sources said she reached Delhi early morning.

Accompanied by daughter Priyanka, Gandhi had on September 2 left for the US for medical check-up.

66-year-old Gandhi, who had undergone a surgery in the US for an undisclosed ailment on August 5, 2011, had flown there for a check-up in February and again on September 2 last year.

She was admitted to AIIMS in August after she complained of chest pain and exhaustion in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on Food Security Bill when it was in the last stages of adoption.

She was discharged from the hospital after she spent five hours undergoing various tests. Gandhi, who had cough and headache, had felt uneasy in Parliament after taking medicines.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1887258/report-sonia-gandhi-returns-home-from-us-after-routine-medical-check-up

[lsingh]

She got served a summons before she left. looks like she may have cancer form the hospital she was staying in. Interesting from the comments by HS Phoolka that the BJP do not really push the Sikh Genocide to get justice. With this summons as it is an embarrassment for India and Hindus both the BJP and Badal are keeping quite, normally they jump to attack Congress on small issues.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/US-court-summons-served-to-Sonia-Gandhi-through-hospital-staff-and-her-security-Sikhs-for-Justice/articleshow/22481354.cms

US court summons served to Sonia Gandhi through hospital staff and her security: Sikhs for Justice

IP Singh, TNN | Sep 11, 2013, 01.12 PM IST

JALANDHAR: A day after securing orders from a US Federal Judge that summons issued by a US court on September 3 for Sonia Gandhi could be served through hospital staff or through the security agents protecting her — rights group, Sikhs for Justice, claimed that summons had been served through hospital and security staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said that on September 9, the summons and complaint were served to the hospital and security staff of Sloan-Kettering amidst heavy commotion and resistance from the staff. "Ester Ruiz, the night shift nursing supervisor at the Sloan-Kettering was handed a copy of the summons, complaint and Judge Cogan's order directing her to give the documents to Sonia Gandhi. A copy of the summons was also handed to Alvin Millner, the security manager at Sloan-Kettering for delivery of the same to Congress president," Pannun said in a communique from US.

SFJ held that that the serving of US court summons on Sonia Gandhi was complete for all purposes, because Judge Cogan had allowed serving hospital and security staff of Sloan-Kettering instead of personally handing over the summons to Sonia Gandhi.

Pannun held that as per federal rules after the serving of summons and complaint, Sonia Gandhi would have time till September 30 (21 days) to answer the allegations of protecting and shielding Congress leaders who participated in attacks on Sikhs in 1984. The September 3 summons state that if defendant Sonia Gandhi failed to respond within 21 days after the serving, a default judgment will be entered against her.

Earlier, US Federal Judge Brain M Cogan, ordered the serving of summons and complaint to Congress president Sonia Gandhi through hospital staff or security personnel of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

In the lawsuit filed against Sonia Gandhi, SFJ and victims are seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the Congress party president for her role in shielding and protecting Kamal Nath, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and other Congress party leaders from being prosecuted for their crimes against humanity.

[Mehtab Singh]

‘U.S. Sikh group filing improper suits against Congress leaders’

An Indian-American lawyer representing the Congress party has accused a Sikh group of resorting to improper practices while filing lawsuits in the U.S. against leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Lawyer Ravi Batra said Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) had indulged in “improper judge-and-venue-shopping” while filing lawsuits against the leaders in several federal courts.

Mr. Batra said in a statement filed in the court of the Eastern District of New York that contrary to the SFJ claims, Ms. Gandhi was not served court summons during her reported treatment at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital here last month.

According to the statement, a security manager at the hospital has said Ms. Gandhi had not been served with the lawsuit by hospital staff.

“Three men came in the middle of the night and started throwing papers on every nursing station on all five floors, saying ‘you have been served.’

Nobody picked them up,” said the manager.

He also said the SFJ had “wholly failed to alert the respective federal district courts of the prior pending and related cases,” when they commenced the related action against Ms. Gandhi and related identical actions against Mr. Singh in the court of District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York.

Appearing as counsel for Ms. Gandhi, Mr. Batra said the Congress leader “reserves all of her rights to contest any assertion of jurisdiction or attempts by plaintiffs to pursue this matter, including, by way of motion to dismiss for a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, lack of personal jurisdiction for insufficient process, insufficient service of process.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/us-sikh-group-filing-improper-suits-against-congress-leaders/article5265692.ece

US court rejects demand for default judgement against Sonia Gandhi

New York: A federal judge here has rejected a demand by a rights group seeking a default judgement against Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and given them four weeks time to amend the complaint, given the "legal infirmities" in their case.

Gandhi's Counsel Ravi Batra said in an emailed statement to PTI that, contrary to claims by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Gandhi was not served summons during her visit to the city for medical purposes last month.

Batra said he has informed the federal judge that the New York court lacks personal and subject matter jurisdiction in the case and SFJ has been indulging in "improper judge and venue shopping."

SFJ had yesterday filed a service-affidavit with the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York claiming that an "alternate" service was served on Gandhi on September 9 through the receptionist, nurse supervisor and security employees at the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital here.

SFJ had also requested for a mandatory default judgement to be issued against Gandhi, a demand that was rejected by the presiding judge.

Batra said Judge Cogan of the district court has granted SFJ's counsel four weeks to amend the complaint, given the "legal infirmities" in their case. Batra said he will move the court to dismiss the lawsuit and seek an injunction against the group.

"We will then move to dismiss the case with finality, seek an anti-suit injunction against SFJ, and other appropriate relief to remedy provable bad faith?and/or vexations litigation by plaintiff.

Earlier this week Batra had said that SFJ indulged in an "improper judge-and-venue-shopping" by filing lawsuits against Congress party and its leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gandhi, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kamal Nath in various federal courts in the US.

Batra had said Gandhi has "not been served with process" in the anti-Sikh riots case.

Sikhs for Justice has filed cases against the Congress party and its leaders for shielding and protecting party leaders allegedly involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.

PTI

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/us-court-rejects-demand-for-default-judgement-against-sonia-gandhi_885413.html

[DSGj]

Congress is using the same trick Badal used to try and escape the lawsuit.

[lsingh]

After the Congress said the law suit had no meaning , they are engaging lawyers to defend themselves.All this just adds to awarness of the massacres

[Mehtab Singh]

A US federal court here has given Congress President Sonia Gandhi time till January 2 to respond to charges of "shielding, protecting and rewarding" the perpetrators of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The court's direction came after rights group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) filed an amended class action complaint early this month against Gandhi, with specific instances of impunity and promotions for Congress leaders and police officials who were allegedly involved in attacks on the Sikh community in November 1984 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

SFJ claimed that it served a summons issued by the court on staff of New York's Sloan-Kettering Hospital where Gandhi reportedly underwent a checkup in September.

The hospital and Gandhi have denied receiving the summons.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ, said the lawsuit against Gandhi under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act of 1992 is aimed at seeking justice for the riot victims.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/us-court-asks-sonia-to-respond-to-lawsuit-113121600850_1.html