NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sentenced Congress veteran Sajjan Kumar to life in the first conviction of a politician in the deadly anti-Sikh riots in 1984, holding it was perpetrated by those with “political patronage” and pushed for a new law for speedy prosecution of genocide and mass killings.
Calling for strengthening of the legal system to ensure perpetrators of mass crimes are made answerable, the court said neither ‘crimes against humanity’ nor ‘genocide’ is part of the domestic law of crime and this loophole needs to be addressed urgently.
It also named 2002 post-Godhra Gujarat riots and Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh in 2013 among other mass killings since 1947 where minorities are targeted.
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 on Monday 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 on October 31.
Kumar’s lawyer Anil Sharma told PTI the Congress leader intends to move an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Six accused, including Kumar, were sent for trial in 2010 and three years later, the lower court convicted five of the accused but acquitted the Congress leader of all the charges.
Quashing the acquittal on appeals by the CBI, a bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said the accused in the case were brought to justice “primarily on account of the courage and perseverance of three eyewitnesses” —
Jagdish Kaur, her cousin Jagsher Singh and Nirpreet Kaur.
The BJP and SAD hailed the verdict calling it historic and targeted the Congress while the opposition party cautioned against politicising the legal process in the anti-Sikh riots cases.
Senior BJP leader and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley utilised the verdict to take a swipe at the Congress for choosing Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh chief minister, claiming that Sikhs consider him “culpable” in the violence against the community.
Nath hit back at the BJP over their offensive against him. “When I took oath earlier, nobody said anything. The issue (1984 anti-Sikh riots) is being raked up despite no case, FIR or chargesheet against me,” Nath told reporters in Bhopal shortly after he assumed office. “You see there is a hidden hand,” said alluding to the BJP.
Union minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the verdict has given confidence that the law would soon catch up with other Congress leaders allegedly involved in the “genocide”. (PTI)
