NEW DELHI: The SC on Wednesday deferred to September 24 the hearing on appeals filed by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and the party’s former councillor Balwan Khokhar, challenging their sentences in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi, adjourned the matter as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, was not available.
In 2013, a trial court had acquitted Sajjan Kumar, but in 2018 the Delhi HC reversed the acquittal and convicted him for his role in the riots. Kumar later moved the Supreme Court challenging the sentence. The same year, the High Court upheld the life sentence awarded to Khokhar. Both leaders have since been behind bars, contesting the verdicts.
Khokhar told the court that his furlough request was rejected on September 26, 2024, with jail authorities citing concerns that his release could “invite adverse repercussions and disturb peace and tranquillity in society, prompting unrest.”
Khokhar was convicted in a case related to the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar on November 1–2, 1984. Kumar was also accused in a similar case in Palam Colony during the riots that followed the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi.