AG going to US to defend Badal in a lawsuit

Friday, 24/08/2012

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=45924&boxid=62784&uid=&dat=2012-08-24

Chandigarh: Determined to refute the allegations levelled against the Chief Minister, the Punjab Government has decided to send Advocate General Ashok Aggarwal to USA to defend Parkash Singh Badal in a federal lawsuit filed against him by a US-based human rights group, alleging ‘torture’ of Sikhs in the state.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin has fixed August 30 as the date for hearing in the case. Badal was served summons at Oak Creek High School in Wisconsin on August 10 when he had gone there on a personal visit to attend the memorial service for the six Sikh worshippers who had been shot dead in a Wisconsin gurdwara. Taking no chances, the Punjab Government has assigned AG to personally go to US to hire local attorneys, experts in the matter, to defend CM and contest the lawsuit so that Badal comes out scot-free in the case, sources in AG Office told Daily Post, on Thursday.

The Home and Justice Department having already cleared the file, would put it up before the CM after his return from the foreign visit for a formal nod. 

It is learnt that Principal Secretary to CM SK Chandu is also likely to accompany the AG to US. The New York-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) organisation has filed the lawsuit under the Alien Torts Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act. 

The petition alleges police custodial torture, shielding of the police officers responsible for the extra judicial killings, and continuous human rights violations against the Sikh community in Punjab, said Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, SFJ legal advisor.

The lawsuit contends that Badal had command and control of law enforcement officials, who “inflicted cruel and inhumane treatment and extra-judicial death” on three named plaintiffs and thousands of other unnamed members of a class of plaintiffs. The 30-page complaint was filed by Avtar Singh of New York, who lists himself as coordinator of Sikhs for Justice.

Dismissing it as a “cheap and desperate publicity stunt”, the state government had termed the suit as the handiwork of elements owing allegiance to the philosophy of violence, bloodshed and communal hatred.

“It is ironic that at a time when the CM is busy visiting the families of innocent victims of the tragic outrage, these elements have chosen to play havoc with the sentiments of the community by resorting to the gimmick of a civil suit, full of glaring falsehoods,” the government said. Claiming that the suit had been filed by the associates of Simranjit Singh Mann, a government’s spokesperson said that it was a last-minute bid by thoroughly “marginalised and rejected elements” to attract media attention by resorting to sensationalism.