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Sajjan Kumar Acquitted in 1984 Sikh Massacres Case

By NIRNIMESH KUMAR

The Hindu, Dec. 24, 2002



A Delhi court today acquitted the former Congress Member of Parliament from Outer Delhi, Sajjan Kumar, and a former Congress M.L.A., Jaikishan, in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. With this, he has been acquitted in all the three anti-Sikh riot cases registered against him following an inquiry by a Judicial Commission. The riots broke out in the Capital in the wake of the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi's assassination on Oct. 31, 1984. Acquitting the Congress leader and 10 of his co-accused, the Additional Sessions judge, Manju Goel, said: 'The prosecution (C.B.I.) has miserably failed to prove the case against them.' There was no eyewitness in the case and neither was the prosecution able to present an unbroken chain of circumstantial evidence to make out a foolproof case. Fourteen persons were accused in the case. Three of them died during the trial.

Quoting a relevant paragraph of the statement recorded by Anwar Kaur, based on which the Delhi Police had registered the case, Ms. Goel said that Ms. Kaur was not sure whether Mr. Kumar was leading the mob which lynched her husband, Nevin Singh, at Sultanpuri in West Delhi on Nov. 1, 1984. Ms. Kaur had, in her statement, said that a mob instigated by Mr. Kumar had killed her husband in front of her residence. 'The mob set my house on fire, dragged my husband out and then the accused, Nathu Pradhan and others, hit him with lathis [bamboo staffs] causing his death. The mob then put my bedding on the body and set it ablaze,' Ms. Kaur told the court.