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US court sets Sep 21 for pre-trial
in 1984 riots case
Tuesday May 31, 2011 09:08:55 AM,
Arun Kumar, IANS
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New York: A US Federal
Court has set Sep 21 for pre-trial oral arguments in a case
against Indian Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and India's
Congress party for their alleged role in the November 1984
anti-Sikh riots.
Judge Robert W. Sweet of US Federal Court of the Southern District
of New York ordered serving of all motion papers in accordance
with the stipulated briefing schedule of March 29.
The court had on March 1 issued summons against Nath and Congress
Party in a case filed by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a US based human
rights advocacy group, and some victims of the 1984 riots under
Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).
The class action lawsuit charges Congress party with "conspiring,
aiding, abetting and carrying out organized attacks on Sikh
population of India in November 1984," according to SFJ legal
advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Plaintiffs will present evidence showing how Congress party
planned and organized killing of Sikhs throughout India in
November 1984, how it covered the organized and systematic
violence as anti-Sikh riots of Delhi; and how it's protecting the
killers of Sikhs for the last 26 years, he said.
The plaintiffs will also present an affidavit from a witness who
was present at an Oct 31, 1984 Congress Party meeting in which the
alleged conspiracy and plans to kill Sikhs throughout India were
hatched, Pannun said.
The meeting, according to the witness statement, was attended by
several prominent leaders of Congress party and Chief Ministers of
different states, he said.
The evidence relating to killing of Sikhs throughout India
consists of official figures obtained through the Right to
Information Act 2005 (RTI) showing that Sikhs were killed in the
states where Congress was in power in November 1984, he said.
(Arun Kumar can be
contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
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