NEW YORK: Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan has been summoned by federal court of Los Angeles for allegedly instigating violence against members of the Sikh community in 1984.

The court has summoned Mr Bachchan on a petition filed by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the legal adviser of the Sikhs for Justice group, according to a press release.

The petition alleges that Mr Bachchan instigated attacks against Sikhs when he raised the slogan “Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge (blood for blood)” after former prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Mr Bachchan has to respond to the charges made by the human rights body in 21 days.

The famous actor has for long been pleading his innocence and in 2011 wrote a letter to Akal Takht in which he denied having played any role in the anti-Sikh riots. He pointed out that his maternal grandparents were Sikhs. In his letter, Mr Bachchan wrote: “I wish to take this opportunity to vehemently and categorically deny these allegations against me which are completely baseless, false and untrue.

“The Nehru-Gandhi family and our family have old ties from our city of origin, Allahabad. We have been together in each other’s hour of grief and joy, but to allege that I was a part of the crowd that incited them to raise anti-Sikh slogans is a preposterous and blatant lie.”

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2014