NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court is scheduled to issue its verdict on Monday on appeals against a trial court judgement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case which acquitted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar.
The court had cleared Kumar while convicting retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, former Congress Councillor Balwan Khokhar Girdhari Lal and two others in a case related to the murder of five people in a family in Raj Nagar area of Delhi on November 1, 1984.
The court had ruled that the eye-witness testimony of the complainant Jagdish Kaur, who lost her husband, son and three brothers in the riots in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar area, was not enough to convict Kumar in the absence of other corroborative evidence, but convicted five others in the same case.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel had on October 29 concluded hearing arguments on the appeals filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), riots victims and the convicts, and reserved their judgement.
While the court awarded life imprisonment to Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal, it awarded a three-year jail term to two others — former MLA Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.The convicts had challenged their conviction and sentencing by the trial court in May 2013.The CBI had also filed an appeal, alleging they were engaged in “a planned communal riot” and “religious cleansing”. The agency and the victims have also appealed against the acquittal of Kumar.
The high court had on March 29 last year issued show cause notices to 11 accused, including Khokhar and Yadav, in five 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases which were earlier closed. The matter is being heard by another division bench.The accused, who were acquitted of the charges, were asked as to why should the court not order reinvestigation and retrial against them as they faced allegations of “horrifying crimes against humanity”.
In balance
Accused, who were acquitted of the charges, were asked as to why should the court not order reinvestigation and retrial against them on allegations of “horrifying crimes against humanity”