NEW JERSEY: The resumed hearing in the extra diction case of Ranjit Singh Gill and Sukhminder Singh Sandhu, scheduled for October 31, 1988 in the court of Federal Magistrate Hedges will not be a substantive hearing in the sense that at that hearing the Magistrate will not determine whether or not Ranjit and Sukhminder are, in fact, subject to extradition as he had earlier ruled, said Defense Attorney Mary Pike while talking to the World Sikh News, It would determine whether, in the light of the revelations about Ms. Russell’s misconduct, Magistrate’s order certifying their extradition would be revoked. The question then, is if the order of certificate is revoked and the Defense agrees that it is the minimum that should happen, then, it can be decided how the subsequent hearing will proceed.
So the purpose of the hearing on October 31 will be to determine what the future course of the proceedings should be in the light of the revelations about Ms. Russell’s improper conduct. When that determination is made by the Magistrate, the defense will then be in a position to know what shape and nature of subsequent proceedings will be. The purpose of the hearing is to have legal argument as to what each side feels the shape of those proceedings should be.
The Defense Counsels however expressed their intention to reassert their claim of refugee status both at the renewed proceedings before a Magistrate and in conjunction with their petition for Habeas corpus as well.
Gill and Sandhu, it may be recalled, were arrested from a New Jersey Gas station by the F.B.L on the basis of a note from the Government of India in which it was alleged that they were wanted in India in connection with some criminal activities. Both belong to the AISSF and are important functionaries of the Federation. They had escaped out of India as they had been falsely implicated in A.P Pandey assault case. They were subsequently exonerated by the Justice Bains commission but the police did not drop the case.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 21, 1988
