(Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not have to face a U.S. lawsuit claiming he failed to stop anti-Muslim rioting in 2002, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in New York said the U.S. Department of State had determined that Modi is entitled to immunity as a sitting head of government from civil lawsuits filed in U.S. courts.
The lawsuit, filed in September on the eve of Modi's maiden visit to the United States by a little-known human rights group, made international headlines at the time, though officials from both countries brushed it off as a distraction.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Jonathan Stempel; Editing by James Dalgleish)
