File photo of Congress President Sonia Gandhi
A Sikh rights group has reportedly obtained an order from a US federal court to have summons delivered to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, who is in New York for medical treatment.
The group's attorney claims that the court has ruled that the summons should be issued to Mrs Gandhi either through hospital staff or security personnel assigned to her.
US-based group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) had last week obtained summons against Mrs Gandhi in a class action suit for shielding party officials allegedly involved in inciting the riots that left hundreds of Sikhs dead in 1984. The violence erupted in Delhi after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Her son, Rajiv, was married to Sonia Gandhi. He was assassinated in 1991.
The Sikh rights group, which had 120 days to deliver the summons and complaint to Mrs Gandhi, on Monday obtained ex parte orders from US Federal Judge Brain M. Cogan for service of summons to Mrs Gandhi through her security detail or the staff of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer, where she is believed to be under medical care.
The 27-page complaint against Mrs 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.