Sajjan Kumar was on Monday convicted and sentenced by Delhi high court to life imprisonment in a 1984 anit-Sikh riots case, reversing a lower court that had acquitted him earlier.
Kumar is charged with involvement in the killing of five members of a Sikh family by a mob during the riots in the aftermath of the October 31, 1984, assassination of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards.
The case pertains to the killing of Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh, all of the same family, by a mob in Delhi’s Raj Nagar in Delhi Cantonment on November 1, 1984.
According to witnesses, Sajjan Kumar had incited mobs to attack the Sikh community to avenge the assassination of their “mother” Indira Gandhi.
He was also accused of extending political patronage to the rioters.
The case against Kumar was registered in 2005 on a recommendation by Justice G T Nanavati Commission. CBI had filed two charge sheets against him and the other accused in January 2010.
However, he was acquitted by a lower court in Delhi in 2013, which was challenged by the CBI.
However, a trial court had acquitted him in the case, but awarded life term to former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and a three-year jail term to two others — former MLA Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.
The high court on Monday overturned the lower court’s order and sentenced Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment.
The court also directed him to surrender by December 31, 2018, and slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on him and Rs 1 lakh on all other accused in the case.
First Published: Dec 17, 2018 15:34 IST
