Photo caption: New York based human rights organization Sikhs For Justice filed a lawsuit in a US Federal Court in New York against Mrs. Sonia Gandhi alleging she protected and shielded those involved in attacks on Sikhs in November 1984, which claimed 8000 innocent lives. NEW YORK, NY (TIP): Putting a lie to the claims of Attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Legal Advisor to the Sikhs For Justice and the principal player in the organization, that summons to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi were served at the Memorial – Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, the staff at the Center told India-West Sept. 12 that All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi was not served with a lawsuit by the Sikhs for Justice while she was at the hospital for treatment for an undiagnosed medical condition.

Gandhi is the subject of a pending lawsuit for her alleged involvement in the November 1984 anti-Sikh riots, in which 8000 Sikhs were reportedly killed over several days. The suit accuses Gandhi – a non-politician at the time of the riots – for protecting and shielding the orchestrators of the attack and doing nothing to bring them to justice in the 30 years since the massacre. On Sept. 9, U.S. Federal Judge Brian M. Cogan had ordered that the suit against Gandhi be delivered to her personally via hospital staff or security personnel at Sloan-Kettering. Gurpatwant Pannun, attorney for the U.S.-based Sikhs for Justice, told India-West that Gandhi had been served with the lawsuit later that evening, and sent a press statement to the media noting that the summons had been delivered to Gandhi. Sloan-Kettering security manager Alvin Milliner told India-West Sept. 12 that Gandhi had not been served with the lawsuit by hospital staff. “Three men came in the middle of the night and started throwing papers on every nursing station on all five floors, saying ‘you have been served.’

Nobody picked them up,” he said, adding that the men created “quite a commotion during the night while people were sleeping.” The New York Police Department was called in because of the commotion, and now is in possession of the summons against Gandhi, according to Milliner. Judge Cogan’s order requires the person who has been served the summons to then deliver the summons to Gandhi. Meanwhile, PTI reports that Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka returned to India on Sept. 11. Milliner said the documents against Gandhi are still being held by the NYPD. Pacer, a Web-based service to search for court documents, had not listed a “proof of service” affidavit in Gandhi’s case, as of Sept. 12 evening. Gandhi has been at Sloan Kettering since Sept. 2, days after she complained of chest pain and exhaustion in the Lok Sabha during a discussion of the sweeping Food Security Bill. Gandhi first received treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences before coming to the U.S. In August 2011, Gandhi underwent treatment at Sloan-Kettering for an undiagnosed ailment.