1984 riots: Sonia served US court summons in hospital

A Sikh rights group has delivered a United States federal court's summons at a hospital where Congress President Sonia Gandhi was believed to have been admitted even as she returned to India on Wednesday.

The rights group 'Sikhs for Justice' served the summons issued by federal judge Brain M Cogan on Gandhi for shielding and protecting party leaders allegedly involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.

The night shift nursing supervisor at the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital was handed a copy of the summons and complaint which Judge Cogan had directed to be given to Gandhi.

Meanwhile, Gandhi, 66, returned to Delhi on Wednesday morning from the US where she had gone for a routine medical check-up. A class action suit against Gandhi was filed by Sikhs for Justice, a US-based human rights group, along with victims of the November 1984 under Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act.

Reacting on the development, George Abraham, Chairman of Indian National Overseas Congress USA, said, "Sikhs for Justice group is engaged in vexatious litigation for the sole purpose of harassing an individual with malicious intent."

Ravi Batra, an eminent attorney who represents Congress in the US, said, "The law is a many splendored thing. It has within it the ability to harness all motions, all facts, and arrive at a just merit-driven result from dismissal at the pleadings stage to summary judgement dismissal to a jury's verdict.