New Delhi: The CBI told the Supreme Court, Friday that former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar’s plea challenging the life term awarded to him by the Delhi High Court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case should be dismissed.
The probe agency in its reply on Kumar’s plea seeking bail said he has a ‘large political clout’ and is capable of ‘influencing or terrorising’ witnesses in the case pending against him. The CBI said that a fair trial would not be possible, if Kumar is granted bail.
A bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice SA Nazeer posted the matter for further hearing, March 25.
The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi, November 1 and 2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.
Anti-Sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards.
The top court had earlier admitted the appeal of Kumar for hearing and had also issued notice to the CBI on his bail plea seeking its response within four weeks. It had also allowed the former Congress leader to file a ‘lengthy list of dates’ and ‘additional facts and grounds’ in favour of his appeal.
The 73-year-old Kumar had surrendered before a trial court here, December 31, 2018, to serve the sentence in pursuance of the Delhi High Court’s December 17 judgment awarding him life imprisonment for the ‘remainder of his natural life’. He had also resigned from the Congress.
PTI