December 20, 2018:

On Thursday, Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was convicted and sentenced to jail for the remainder of his life in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case on Dec 17, has moved an application before the Delhi High Court and has sought 30 days’ time to surrender.

The court is likely to hear his application tomorrow.

Sajjan Kumar had been convicted by the Delhi High Court after it reversed the Trial Court’s order acquitting him in the case. The court also slapped a fine of ₹5 lakh on him in the case.

A day after being convicted & sentenced, Sajjan Kumar had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress in a letter to party president Rahul Gandhi.

The case relates to the murder of five members of a family during the anti-Sikh riots in the Raj Nagar area in Delhi Cantonment on Nov 1, 1984.

“What happened in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister was carnage of unbelievable proportions in which over 2,700 Sikhs were murdered in Delhi alone. The law and order machinery clearly broke down and it was literally a ‘free for all’ situation which persisted. The aftershocks of those atrocities are still being felt,” Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel said while handing the 203-page judgement.

The judges recalled the violence in which thousands of Sikhs were killed, some burnt alive, as their houses were destroyed in Delhi and across the country.

“A majority of the perpetrators of these horrific mass crimes, enjoyed political patronage and were aided by an indifferent law enforcement agency. The criminals escaped prosecution and punishment for over two decades. There was an abject failure by the police to investigate the violence which broke out in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi is apparent from the several circumstances highlighted here in above.”

There was an “utter failure” to register separate first report information in the case of five deaths in which Congress leader Kumar and others were sentenced.

The court had observed, “The failure to record any incident whatsoever in the DDR and the lack of mention of PW-1’s statement therein, amongst other circumstances, established the apathy of the Delhi Police and their active connivance in the brutal murders being perpetrated."

Source Link

Picture Source :