Nath will get diplomatic immunity in the US

Senior officials on Friday said that the minister has no plans to visit the US as of now but if and when he is scheduled to visit in his official capacity he would have diplomatic immunity.

“We have to see what the New York court will decide. If the court’s decision goes against our interest, then the US State Department will have to step in. We will have to take up the same. We are in touch with the State Department,” they added.

The officials pointed out that Nath visited the US in April, 2010 as cabinet minister and was extended diplomatic immunity.  According to reports from New York, in April 2010, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ)  along with two individuals, filed a law suit against Kamal Nath under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) & Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) asking the court to order compensatory and punitive damages against the minister.

Plaintiffs have asked for a “jury trial” and will have the right to call upon survivors and experts on genocide as witnesses to prove that systematic killing of Sikhs in November 1984 was genocide as defined in Article 2 of the UN Convention on Genocide.

More than 3,000 people were killed in various clashes across north India during the riots that followed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.