1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Supreme Court asks CBI to apprise it of status of ongoing trial of Sajjan Kumar

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to apprise it of the status of the ongoing trial in a case involving former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and listed his bail plea for hearing on April 15. The CBI told a bench of Justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer that Kumar, who was a sitting MP in 1984, was the "kingpin" of the massacre of Sikhs in the national capital in 1984.

"This is a gruesome offence of massacre of Sikhs. He (Kumar) was the leader and he was the kingpin of this," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, told the bench. Mehta also told the bench it would be a "travesty of justice" if Kumar is enlarged on bail as he is facing trial in another 1984 anti-Sikh riots case at Patiala House district court here.

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 on November 1-2, 1984 and the burning down of a gurudwara.

On December 17, the Delhi High Court had found Sajjan Kumar guilty in the killings of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-I area in South West Delhi’s Palam Colony on November 1-2, 1984 and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar part II during the anti-Sikh riots. Besides Sajjan Kumar, Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former Congress councilor Balwan Khokhar have been sentenced to life imprisonment, while Kishan Khokkar and former legislator Mahender Yadav have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

More than 3,000 Sikhs were brutally killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, one of the scariest incidents of communal violence in the country. The riots had broken out following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31 by her Sikh bodyguards. Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were accused of masterminding the riots against the Sikh community.