Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Wednesday convicted former Congress MP Sajan Kumar in connection with an 1984 anti-Sikh riots case linked to the killing of a father-son duo in the Saraswati Vihar area of Delhi on November 1, 1984.
The court, while convicting Sajjan Kumar, posted the hearing on the quantum of sentence for February 18.
"Sajjan Kumar has been declared guilty in the murder case of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarandeep Singh. Sajjan Kumar has already been serving life imprisonment. The court will decide his punishment on February 18," Advocate Harvinder Singh Phoolka told reporters after the court's verdict.
Sajjan Kumar is already serving a life term in another case linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He was produced before court from Tihar jail for the pronouncement.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja passed the conviction order and posted the arguments on sentence on Feburary 18.
The Special Investigation Team investigating the case alleged that Kumar, who was then the Congress MP for Outer Delhi, led a mob that burnt alive two Sikh men—Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh—and destroyed and looted their houses acting on his directions.
Kumar’s counsel Anil Kumar Sharma, Anuj Sharma and Apoorav Sharma argued that the complainants, the wife and the mother of the victims, had claimed to be an eyewitness in the case after a long delay of seven years and that their testimonies were therefore unreliable.
The FIR in this case was registered in 1991 on the basis of an affidavit dated September 9, 1985, submitted by the complainant before the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, which was appointed in 1985 by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to look into the riots.
On December 4, 2021, the Rouse Avenue Court of Special Judge M K Nagpal framed charges against the accused for the offences of murder, rioting with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly and attempt to commit culpable homicide, among others.
Kumar is currently lodged in Tihar Jail serving a life sentence handed down by the Delhi High Court in 2018 in a case related to the killing of five Sikhs at Raj Nagar Part I in Palam Colony on November 1-2, 1984, and the burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part II.
Kumar was convicted in September 2023 by a Delhi court in a case related to the murder of seven people from the Sikh community in Sultanpuri during the 1984 riots. One case is pending against Kumar in the Rouse Avenue court, two appeals against his acquittals are pending in the High Court, and an appeal against his conviction in one case is pending in the Supreme Court.
"Justice Delivered! In SC Case No. 3/21 (FIR No. 458/91, PS Saraswati Vihar), Rouse Avenue Court convicts Sajjan Kumar for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots involving the brutal killing of Jaswant Singh. This verdict is a historic step towards justice for the Sikh genocide victims!" BJP's Delhi MLA Manjinder SIngh Sirsa said after the verdict.
(With PTI inputs)
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