Lawsuit filed by Sikhs for Justice.
AB Wire
WASHINGTON, DC: After its failed bids on several Congress leaders, including the former prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi, as well as incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi, to hold them financially culpable for the atrocities against the Sikh community in India during the 1984 riots, the New York-based organization Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has now trained its radar on actor Amitbah Bachchan.
Bachchan has been summoned by a US federal court in Los Angeles for his alleged involvement in a human rights violations case. The actor’s Hollywood manager, David A Unger – co-owner of ‘Three Six Zero Group’ – was served with a copy of the Federal Court summons and complaint by the SFJ on February 23.
In the lawsuit filed against Bachchan, SFJ alleges that Bachchan had instigated violence against the Sikh community by raising “blood for blood” slogans in 1984, following the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The allegations against Bachchan have surfaced in the past also, but he has on numerous occasions disputed them, denied he said it.
As per Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Bachchan has 21 days after the notice of the summons to respond to the charges of human rights violations.
“If defendant failed to respond by March 17, we will move the court for entry of default judgment imposing compensatory and punitive damages against Bachchan for instigating violence which took lives of thousands of innocent Sikhs during November, 1984,” said Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor, according to the Press Trust of India.
1 Comment
I am not sure of the legality of serving a subpoena to a “Manager” of a defendant. My question is, by accepting the subpoena, does the manager become a legal counsel of the defendant by default ?