NEW ORLEANS: A federal appeals court Friday rein- stated the indictment of five Sikhs arrested in New Orleans 16 months ago on charges of conspiring to ill an Indian official visiting the CITY.

The ruling, which overturned a lower court decision dismissing. The indictment, would allow the trial of the Sikhs on the federal charges. No trial date has been set.

The five — Gurpartap Singh Birk, Sukhvinder Singh, Virinder Singh, Jasbir Singh Sandhu, and Jatinder Singh Ahluwalia —have been in jail since being indicted in April, 1985.

The Sikhs, who are not related, were accused of plotting to kill Bhajan Lal. Bhajan Lal was the Indian state of Haryana’s Chief Minister, a position comparable to an American governor.

Lal came to New Orleans in 1985 for eye surgery. The Indian Embassy told the State Department that Lal a Hindu might be a target of Sikhs. Although Sikhs are a minority in India which has a Hindu majority, they are a majority in the Indian state of Punjab and militant Sikhs are seeking autonomy for Punjab.

Three of the Sikhs named in the indictment were seen near Lal’s New Orleans hotel, authorities – said. The FBI reported two others had bought a weapon in Alabama and were headed to New Orleans.

Last September, US. District Judge Patrick Carr dismissed the indictment before a trial because the State Department did not designate all as a foreign official. The law under which the Sikhs were indicted covers plots and acts of violence against official guests and specific categories of foreign visitors.

Attorneys for the Sikhs said Bhajan Lal was not an ‘official guest’ because the State Department did not complete the necessary paperwork.

“A screw-up by the State Department shouldn’t mean they – can’t be tried”, said Douglas Frazier, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case.

Lal was treated as an official guest although the paperwork may not have said he was one pro- sectors said. Once the State Department leaned of the assassination plot it sent agents to New Orleans and alerted New Orleans

Police, “It is obvious that the State department does not take such measures on behalf of ordinary foreign visitors”, the appeals court said, “We have no difficulty concluding that the State Department can confer ‘official guest’ status not solely through ministerial acts, but by its normal conduct as well”.

Richard B. Stricks, an attorney for the Sikhs, said Friday that he had not seen the appeals court decision and could not say if he will appeal it.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 29, 1986