US court summons Bachchan for alleged 'khoon ka badla khoon' remark in 1984 riots

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been summoned by a court in the United States over his alleged controversial slogan in 1984 following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Based on a petition filed by Gurupatwant Pannun, a member of the US-based human rights group Sikhs For Justice, the Los Angeles Federal Court has given Bachchan 21 days to respond to the allegation of instigating violence through his slogan "blood for blood".

Last year, 1984 riots prime witness Jagdish Kaur had raised her voice against the megastar for his role in the instigating people.

Talking to media outlets, she had said: 'I watched the live relay on Doordarshan and saw Amitabh Bachchan shouting the slogan, ‘Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge!'. And everyone who saw the live telecast would know how Amitabh Bachchan provoked the riots.”

Kaur's husband and son were murdered by a mob inside her house in West Delhi on November 1, 1984.

However, the actor had then pleaded innocence.

In a letter to the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikh religion, he said: "Wild, irresponsible and most unfounded allegations, by certain sections of the Sikh community, about my involvement in the inciting of violence against them during the most unfortunate Sikh riots of 1984 have caused me acute agony. The Nehru-Gandhi family and our family have old ties from our city of origin, Allahabad. We have been together in each other's hour of grief and joy, but to allege that I was a part of the crowd that incited them to raise anti-Sikh slogans is a preposterous and blatant lie"

"Quite contrarily, I have always propagated the soothing of injured feelings and the maintenance of serenity. The unfortunate incidents of the riots of 1984 against the Sikhs shall always remain a blot and a dark phase in the history of our country, a country that prides itself in its secular credentials."