A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to alleged incitement of violence in the Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh pronounced the acquittal. A detailed, reasoned order is yet to be released.
In August 2023, the court had framed charges against Kumar for rioting and promoting enmity, while dropping charges of murder and criminal conspiracy.
The case stemmed from two FIRs registered in February 2015 by a special investigation team.
The first pertained to the killing of Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh in Janakpuri on November 1, 1984. The second related to the death of Gurcharan Singh, who was allegedly set on fire in Vikaspuri on November 2, 1984.
Despite the acquittal in this case, Kumar remains in prison. On February 25 last year, a trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the killing of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar area during the riots.
The court ruled that while the crime was grave, it did not fall under the “rarest of rare” category warranting the death penalty.
The trial court had also noted that the Saraswati Vihar case formed part of a continuing pattern of violence for which Kumar had earlier been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018. In that case, the high court held him guilty for the deaths of five people during riots in Palam Colony following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
According to the Nanavati Commission report, 587 FIRs were filed in Delhi in connection with the 1984 riots, which claimed 2,733 lives. Of these, around 240 cases were closed as “untraced” and 250 ended in acquittals. Only 28 FIRs resulted in convictions, leading to the conviction of about 400 people. Around 50 individuals, including Kumar, were convicted of murder.
Kumar’s appeal against his life sentence in the Palam Colony case is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
(With inputs from PTI)