’84 riots: Supreme Court seeks CBI’s reply on furlough plea of ex-councillor

New Delhi, March 15

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the CBI to respond to a furlough plea filed by former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, who is serving life imprisonment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

As Khokhar’s counsel said he was seeking furlough for maintaining social ties, a Bench led by Justice JK Maheshwari said it may ask the competent authority to decide the matter.

The Bench posted the matter for further hearing in April. Around 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, had died in the riots in the Capital in the aftermath of assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Besides Khokhar, former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar is serving a life term in the case. Former MLA Mahender Yadav, who was awarded 10-year sentence, died from Covid in Mandoli jail.

Kumar and Khokhar are lodged in Tihar jail since their conviction on December 17, 2018.

Khokhar’s life sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2018, while it overturned Kumar’s acquittal by the trial court in 2013.

The case relates the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar Part-I in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.