Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sentenced Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment in connection to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Sajjan Kumar (73), who was convicted in the killing of five members of a family at Raj Nagar in Delhi, has been asked to surrender by December 31.
Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sentenced Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment in connection to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Sajjan Kumar (73), who was convicted in the killing of five members of a family at Raj Nagar in Delhi, has been asked to surrender by December 31.
Following the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards, nearly 3000 people were killed by irate mobs in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. "It is important to assure the victims that despite the challenges, truth will prevail. Criminals have enjoyed political patronage," noted the High Court. The Court pointed out Jagdish Kaur as the one who had fought for action against Sajjan Kumar and others.
A former Congress Councillor, Balwan Khokhar, retired Naval officer Captain Bhagmal and three others were held guilty in the Raj Nagar case but a trial court had acquitted Sajjan Kumar. The convicts had challenged the verdict and their sentence by the trial court in May 2013.
The CBI had also filed an appeal against Sajjan Kumar's acquittal, alleging that the mobs were engaged in "a planned communal riot" and "religious cleansing."
Speaking on the verdict, Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi said, "It has been a very long and painful wait for innocent victims who were murdered by those in power. Nobody involved in any riot should be allowed to escape, no matter how powerful the individual maybe," he reiterated.