Sajjan Kumar, the Congress leader has been sentenced to life in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case by the Delhi High Court after cancelling his acquittal from a trial court.
The High Court said today, that “It is important to assure the victims that despite the challenges truth will prevail.”
The court said “criminals have enjoyed political patronage”, and appreciated the courage shown by the witness Jagdish Kaur for pursuing the case fearlessly. The court said that Kumar must surrender before December 31.
Mr Kumar, the Congress leader was convicted of murder and rioting during the clashes that broke out in the wake of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. The violence claimed the life of around 2,800 Sikhs, out of which 2,100 were from Delhi. “The aftershock of those atrocities are still being felt,” a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said.
Cham Kaur, the prosecution’s key witness had told Delhi’s Patiala House Court on November 16 that she saw Sajjan Kumar telling a mob in Sultanpuri neighbourhood that Sikhs had killed “our mother”. The witness had said that the two members of her family were killed in a mob attack the next morning.
Ms Kaur said that she was able to recognise Sajjan Kumar, who was a parliamentarian then, because they used to visit him for getting ration cards and passports made. Other people who were allegedly killed by the mob the same day, were also named by Ms Kaur.
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