I will fight for justice till my last breath: Jagdish Kaur who lost 5 family members in ''84 riots

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 17

This is a big victory for Jagdish Kaur, an anti-Sikh riot victim, as the Delhi HC set aside previous acquittal of Sajjan Kumar and awarded him life imprisonment.  

Soon after the verdict, she said: “I will fight for justice with the last drop of blood."

Jagdish Kaur, 77, who can barely walk, was in the Delhi High Court to see the judges convict Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 34-year-old case of murder of five members of her family during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. 

Kaur, now based in Amritsar, lost her husband, elder son and three cousins in the carnage that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Mohali-based Nirpreet Kaur, another witness against Sajjan Kumar, said that she was allegedly threatened with slapping of TADA cases against her. 

Delhi’s Karkardooma court on April 30, 2013, convicted five persons for these killings, awarding the life sentence to former Congress MLA Mahendra Yadav and councillor Balwan Khokar and three-year imprisonment to three others for rioting.

Then Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who allegedly led the murderous mobs, was let off, prompting Jagdish Kaur and a second survivor, Jagsher Singh, along with the CBI to appeal the acquittal in the Delhi High Court.