Delhi HC observation on 1984 anti-Sikh riots case
The Delhi High Court on Monday held Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and others guilty in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court asked Sajjan Kumar to surrender by December 31.
A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel overturned a trial court judgement that had acquitted the Congress leader.
Besides Congress' Sajjan Kumar, Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar have been sentenced to life imprisonment. Kishan Khokkar and former legislator Mahender Yadav have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Delhi HC's observation on 1984 anti-Sikh riots:
"Truth will prevail and justice will be done."
"It was an extraordinary case where it was going to be impossible to proceed against Sajjan Kumar in normal scheme of things 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."
"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?."
"What happened in the aftermath of the assassination of the then PM was carnage of unbelievable proportions in which over 2,700 Sikhs were murdered in Delhi alone. Law and order clearly broke down and it was literally a free for all situation. Aftershocks of that still being felt."
