Twists and turns: The crime and trial of Sajjan Kumar

NEW DELHI: More than three decades after mass killing of Sikhs in 1984 in the wake of assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, justice is finally being done. Sajjan Kumar, a Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP from Outer Delhi, who was one of the prime accused, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. He has to surrender by December 31, 2018. The Delhi high court has reversed the trial court's acquittal of Kumar five years ago.

This is what happened on November 1, 1984
Five members of a family in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment were murdered by a mob provoked and led by Sajjan Kumar on November 1, 1984, after the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi .

The victims — Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh — were members of the same family. Kehar and Gurpreet were the husband and son respectively of complainant and eyewitness Jagdish Kaur, while Raghuvender, Narender and Kuldeep were the brothers of Kaur and another witness Jagsher Singh.


According to witnesses' accounts in an HT report, they had seen Sajjan Kumar, and heard him, saying, “Ek bhi sardar zinda nahi bachna chahiye… in sardaron ko maro, inhone hamari maa ko mara hai (Not even one sardar should be left alive. Kill these sardars because they have killed my mother)." Jagdish kaur saw the chowki in-charge applaud the mob and ask them, ‘Kitne murge bhun diye’ (how many Sikhs have you roasted) while the bodies of her husband and son lay nearby.

Why Sajjan Kumar was acquitted
In May 2013, the trial court let off Kumar in the case saying he deserved the benefit of doubt as key witness Jagdish Kaur did not name him as an accused in her statement given in 1985 to the Justice Ranganath Mishra commission which was probing the riots.

"It was a matter of fact that when eye witness and complainant Jagdish Kaur had submitted her affidavit before Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission in 1985, she had not mentioned the name of Sajjan Kumar in any manner though the other accused had been named," the court said.

The trial court, however, had held five others guilty in the case and awarded varying jail terms for being part of the mob that killed the Sikhs. The court awarded life term to the former councillor Balwan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal for murder and rioting. Former MLA Mahinder Yadav and one Kishan Khokkar were awarded three-year imprisonment.

The appeal against acquittal
The convicts had challenged their conviction and sentencing by the trial court in May 2013. The victims as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) too had filed an appeal. The CBI claimed the accused were engaged in a planned communal riot and religious cleansing.

In 2016, the Delhi High Court dismissed the pleas of Kumar and others for transfer of their case to another bench. They alleged in their applications that one judge, Jutsice PS Teji, should not hear the matter as he had heard the case as a trial court judge earlier. CBI argued that Justice Teji had never conducted trial proceedings in the case but only heard the bail plea when he was a trial court judge, as being a sessions judge then, he was handling bail matters. The court said the pleas for transfer were just delaying tactics.