1984 anti-Sikh riots convict Sajjan Kumar mentioned before the court of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde seeking an urgent hearing of the bail applications on the ground of ill health. He is currently undergoing his jail sentence for his involvement in the case. News agency ANI reported.

Earlier, the court had listed the matter for April 14.

The top court last month had refused to grant interim bail to former Congress leader Kumar. The court had said it will hear the bail plea in May during the summer vacation.

A bench comprising Justices SA Bobde, BR Gavai and Surya Kant had also said it will consider medical report from the AIIMS on the health condition of Kumar after completing the hearing in the Sabarimala reference matter pending before it.

Sajjan Kumar has been convicted in a case relating to the killing of five members of a family in Raj Nagar following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Sajjan Kumar, had submitted that he has been going through several medical ailments and had lost nearly 13 Kilograms in jail.

Kumar was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018, after it set aside the lower court order that had acquitted him of the charges.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was today (Monday, Dec 17) sentenced to life imprisonment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case for criminal conspiracy to commit murder, abetment, delivering speeches instigating violence against Sikhs and disrupting communal harmony.

The order came as a Delhi High Court bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel reversed the judgment of a sessions court acquitting Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the murder of five members of a Sikh family — Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh —in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment on November 1, 1984, after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

The court said the life sentence awarded to the Congress leader would be for the “remainder of his life” and directed him to surrender by December 31, barring him from leaving the city of Delhi till then.

The court said it has partially allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation’s appeal against Kumar’s acquittal by the trial court. The probe was carried out by the CBI which re-opened the case on recommendation of Nanavati Commission in 2005.

In the same case, the high court upheld the convictions and awarded varying sentences to former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former MLAs Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.

They were also convicted for criminal conspiracy to burn down residences of Sikh families and a gurdwara in the area during the riots. They have also been directed to surrender by December 31 and not leave the city before that.

With the direction, the bench dismissed the appeals of the five against their conviction and punishment awarded by the trial court. The convicts had challenged their conviction and sentencing by the trial court in May 2013.

The trial court in May 2013, while acquitting Kumar, had awarded life term to Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal, and a three-year jail term to Yadav and Kishan Khokhar. Today, the high court upheld Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal life sentences and extended the sentences of Yadav and Kishan Khokar to a 10-year jail term.

The bench of Justices Muralidhar and Goel had on October 29 concluded hearing arguments on the appeals filed by the CBI, riots victims and the convicts, and reserved the judgment.

The high court had on March 29 last year issued show cause notices to 11 accused, including Yadav, in five other 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases which were earlier closed. The matter is being heard by another division bench.

The accused, who were acquitted of the charges, were asked as to why should the court not order reinvestigation and retrial against them as they faced allegations of “horrifying crimes against humanity”.

Kumar’s prosecution on November 16 came after Cham Kaur, a prosecution witness, told the court that in 1984 she had seen Kumar allegedly addressing the crowd in national capital’s Sultanpuri area where he said that Sikhs had killed “our mother”, referring to former PM Indira Gandhi. Kaur further named other people who were shot dead on the same date by the mob.

Before Cham Kaur, another key prosecution witness Sheela Kaur had identified Kumar as the one who had instigated the mob in Sultanpuri.

Calling it “an extraordinary case”, the Delhi HC observed that normal scheme of things it would have been impossible to proceed against Sajjan Kumar “as there appeared to be ongoing large-scale efforts to suppress cases against him by not even recording them.”

“Even if they were registered they weren’t investigated properly and investigations which saw any progress weren’t carried to logical end of a charge sheet actually being filed. Even defence doesn’t dispute that as far as FIR is concerned, a closure report had been prepared,” said the HC.

“The mass killings of Sikhs between 1st and 4th November 1984 in Delhi and the rest of the country, engineered by political actors with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies, answer the description of crimes against humanity,” observed the court.

It said “cases like the present are to be viewed in the larger context of mass crimes that require a different approach and much can be learnt from similar experiences elsewhere.”

Significantly, the High Court said: “Common to the instances of mass crimes are the targeting of minorities and the attacks spearheaded by the dominant political actors facilitated by the law enforcement agencies.”

“The criminals responsible for the mass crimes have enjoyed political patronage and managed to evade prosecution and punishment. Bringing such criminals to justice poses a serious challenge to our legal system. Decades pass by before they can be made answerable. This calls for strengthening the legal system. Neither crimes against humanity nor genocide is part of our domestic law of crime.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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SIT to comprise of a retired High Court Judge and two police officers – one former and one serving, names to be decided by SC on January 11

Nearly 34 years after over 3000 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed in the communal pogrom that engulfed Delhi and other parts of the country following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 10) ordered a fresh probe in 186 cases linked to the massacre.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud decided to set up a new Special Investigation Team (SIT) – to be monitored by the Supreme Court – headed by a former High Court judge to independently probe 186 cases related to the anti-Sikh riots that broke out in Delhi. These cases were not investigated by a SIT that had earlier been constituted by the central government to investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

While details of who will be part of this newly-ordered SIT are yet to be finalised, the Bench said that the probe team will also comprise two senior police officers, one serving and the other retired (not below or who is equivalent to the rank of an inspector general).

The names of the members of this proposed SIT are expected to be finalised on January 11 when the Supreme Court hears the matter next. On the Centre’s insistence, the Bench has agreed to consider names suggested by Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand (on behalf of the government) and senior advocate HS Phoolka (on behalf of the riot victims), for being nominated to the SIT.

While observers may wonder about the rationale behind or the effectiveness of constituting an SIT to investigate the cases after nearly 34 years of the killings, the Supreme Court has held: “Regard being had to the nature of the cases, we think it appropriate that a fresh SIT be constituted for carrying on further investigation.”

The Chief Justice brushed aside reservations expressed by the parties in the case over the maintainability of such an SIT – on an earlier occasion a similar probe had been quashed following objections being raised over alleged judicial overreach in carrying out investigations – saying: “That is history.”

On December 11 last year the Supreme Court had received the confidential report filed by an apex court-appointed supervisory committee of two former SC judges, Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JM Panchal. The two-member committee had looked into 241 cases linked with the anti-Sikh riots which had been closed by the Centre-appointed SIT. The supervisory committee had reportedly recommended that 186 of these 241 cases needed to be re-examined and it is these cases that the newly-proposed SIT will now look into afresh.

A total of 3,325 people were killed in the 1984 riots. Of these, as many as 2733 deaths were reported from the national capital alone while Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states accounted for the rest.

In February 2015, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had set up a SIT, following a recommendation by the Union home ministry-appointed Justice (retd.) GP Mathur committee, which had suggested a centre-monitored probe in several of the anti-Sikh riots cases. The Centre’s SIT was headed by senior IPS officer Pramod Asthanaand comprised of retired district and sessions judge Rakesh Kapoor and then additional deputy commissioner in the Delhi police Kumar Gyanesh as its members.

The SIT had, among other cases, also looked into the high-profile complaints filed against Congress veterans Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. It had questioned Sajjan Kumar – a former MP – on three occasions on allegations that he had personally participated in the riots and instigated a mob in Delhi’s Janakpuri area on November 1, 1984. The case against Sajjan Kumar, still awaiting judicial closure, was connected to the killing of two Sikhs — Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh – during the riots.

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