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US: Sikh slapped with $ 15 million
lawsuit
WSN Network
LOS ANGELES: A
Sikh man, awaiting trial in an honour killing case, has been slapped
with a whopping $15 million lawsuit in
California's
civil court by the victim's family.
Gurparkash
Khalsa, 56, is in jail charged with killing Ajer Hothi, 23, the
ex-boyfriend of his daughter on
March 27, 2007,
after he married another woman.
Hothi's family
seeks the money to compensate for their loss and to send a message,
their attorney Steven Brown said.
"They want to
make it clear that he needs to be held accountable," Brown was
quoted as saying by recordnet.com.
The wrongful
death lawsuit was filed last week in
San Joaquin
county superior court on behalf of Jasvir Kaur, Hothi's widow, Avtar
Hothi, his father and mother Manjit Kaur Hothi.
According to
prosecutors, Khalsa stalked Hothi had dated his daughter.
Khalsa, who
owned a trucking firm based in French Camp refused to allow Hothi to
marry his daughter, because he was just a trucker, prosecutors said.
Khalsa later
learned that his daughter had aborted Hothi's child and demanded the
couple to marry, but Hothi's parents had sent their son to
India
for an arranged marriage, according to court papers.
Prosecutors
accuse Khalsa of tracking down Hothi and killing him in a cab.
Hothi was shot
nine times with a handgun similar to one Khalsa had registered years
before, according to a police report. The gun was, however, never
recovered.
San Joaquin
County deputy district attorney Robert Himelblau plans to seek a
life sentence for Khalsa in the jury trial set for May, the website
said.
28 January 2009
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