New Delhi: Thirty-four years after the anti-Sikh riots, the Delhi High Court Monday sentenced Congress veteran Sajjan Kumar to life in the first conviction of a politician in the communal frenzy, holding it was perpetrated by those who enjoyed “political patronage”.
The reversal of 73-year-old Kumar’s acquittal by a trial court cast a shadow on the swearing-in of fellow Congress leader Kamal Nath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh with the BJP and ally Shiromani Akali Dal demanding answers from the Congress leadership when Sikh groups have alleged his culpability in the riots. Nath has denied any role in the riots and nor he is an accused in any riots case.
Describing the riots as “crimes against humanity”, the high court awarded Kumar life term for “remainder of his natural life”, convicting him of criminal conspiracy and abetment in commission of crimes of murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of communal harmony and defiling and destruction of a Gurdwara.
The case in which Kumar was convicted related to killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-I area in Palam Colony in South West Delhi on November 1-2, 1984 during the deadly riots in the national capital and other parts of the country.
According to official accounts, 2,733 Sikhs were killed between November 1 and 4, 1984 following the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards October 31.
Observing it was “undeniable” that it took over three decades to punish the accused in the case, the court said it was important to assure the victims that despite the challenges faced by the court, “truth will prevail and justice will be done”.
The court directed Kumar, who was then a Lok Sabha MP from Outer Delhi, and other five convicts to surrender by December 31, 2018 and not to leave the city of Delhi. There was no immediate reaction from Kumar.
But his lawyer Anil Sharma said the Congress leader intends to move an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Sharma said Kumar is in the capital itself and since he has been given time till December 31 to surrender efforts would be made to challenge the conviction and the sentence before that day. If no appeal would be filed before December 31, Kumar would surrender, he added.
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