Britain Charges 4 Asians in Plot to Kill Gandhi

LEICESTER, England —  Four Asian men were charged today with conspiracy to murder Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during his official visit to Britain, which ended Tuesday night, police said.

Police in the central English city of Leicester refused to give the men’s names, ages or religion. But Press Assn., Britain’s domestic news agency, said they were Sikhs.

Last Friday, police arrested 11 Sikh and Kashmiri separatists throughout England under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in what news reports alleged was a plot to assassinate Gandhi.

Leicester police said the four men will appear in court Thursday.

Sikhs Killed Mother

Sikh extremists were responsible for the assassination last Oct. 31 of Gandhi’s mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After the arrests Friday, Sikh and Kashmiri leaders denounced the detentions as political acts designed to placate the Indian government. They maintained that no evidence of a murder plot had been uncovered by British authorities.

During his official visit to Britain, his first since succeeding his mother as prime minister, Gandhi discussed with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ways of increasing cooperation between their two countries in the fight against international terrorists.