NEW YORK: An immigration judge denied bail to two Sikhs, Virinder Singh and Jasbir Singh Sandhu, last week even as two prominent Congressmen came to their support.

Virinder Singh and Sandhu are being held at the Mannattan Correctional Center here by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is seeking to deport them to India.

Both have served their time in Federal prisons after being convicted in a conspiracy case to assassinate former Haryana State Chief Minister Bhajan Lal at New Orleans in 1985. Lal, a notorious Sikh baiter is facing charges of corruption, nepotism, moral turpitude, robbery, smuggling etc filed against him. Opposition leaders led by farmer Prime Minister Charan Singh had presented a 12 page memorandum to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on July 4, 1985 substantiating these charges. Lal is now a Federal Minister of environment.

Virinder Singh, Jasbir Singh Sandhu, Dr. Gurpratap Singh Birk, Sukhyinder Singh were sentenced to varying terms in prison after they pleaded “no contest” to charges that they conspired to assassinate Bhajan Lal who had come to New Orleans in 1985 for eye treatment. Another accused, Jatinder Singh Ahluwalia, a New Orleans Taxi driver was earlier a quitted by Judge Patric E. Carr.

Dr. Birk and others maintained their innocence and said that they had come to New Orleans in order to stage a protest against Bhajan Lal for the humiliation and harassment of the Sikhs in Haryana during the Asian Games and entered a plea under “Afford vs North Carolina” which allows them to plead guilty while maintaining their innocence.

In a letter to the INS, Congressman Dan Burton, Indiana who is a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee said, “If these two men are deported their lives will be in immediate danger. As a member of the house foreign affairs committee, I am aware of how serious is the oppression against the Sikhs living in India. Under emergency legislation the government of India has the right to arrest almost anyone without a charge, detain him for up to two years and eventually execute them.

“It is highly likely that this scenario would apply to Virinder Singh and Jasbir Singh Sandhu, should they be deported to India.”

Hon. Burton said he made this request on humanitarian grounds and asked the INS to keep him apprised of the situation.

Congressman Wally Herger of California in his letter said both Virinder Singh and Jasbir Singh Sandhu had served their terms in the US and he was certain that the treatment to them in India would “almost certainly be unfair.” Their lives may even be in danger,” he added. He asked that these Sikhs should not be deported.

Talking to the World Sikh News Virinder Singh said, “We have become landless people. We have two homes, Punjab and the U.S. but because of the conviction and our anti India activities, we can’t go back to India and they do not let us stay in this country. So there is no place on this earth for us.”

The denial of the bail evoked strong reactions amongst the Sikh leaders in New York. Harbhajan Singh Gill spoke at the Sikh Cultural Society Richmond Hill on November 6 and briefed the Sangat on recent developments in the case. While even murderers were given bail, these two Sikhs were denied, because of the pressure ire by Indian government, he said adding that the Sikhs would appeal the decision and take it to the highest court to get justice.

He also narrated the case of Jasbir Singh Bajwa who was deported from the US. He was tortured by the police and his legs were broken by his torturers. Such a fate surely awaits these two Sikhs if they were forced to go to India. This would be fought all the way, he said.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 11, 1988