’84: Sajjan fate in HC today

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 16

Jagdish Kaur, 77, can barely walk. But she will be in the Delhi High Court tomorrow to see if 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.

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.

This appeal will be decided tomorrow by Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vijay Goel of the HC.

Kaur shudders at the thought of what will happen in the court. “I won’t be able to sleep tonight,” she says, speaking of how difficult it has been to cling to the hope of justice for 34 years.

“My patience is running thin. One just heard of Congress man Kamal Nath being appointed the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. What message is being given? Sajjan Kumar was acquitted on the basis of doubt when there was never any. So far courts have only convicted common people who were part of the killer crowds. Not one influential Congress leader who organised the mobs and armed them has been convicted,” says Kaur.

The case pertains to killing of Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment’s Rajnagar area on November 1, 1984. As many as 320 Sikhs were killed but the Nanavati Commission in 2005 ordered that only the case of Jagdish Kaur and Jagsher Singh be reopened for a fresh probe by the CBI.

Anti-Sikh riots: Delhi cantonment case

• Nov 1, 1984: A mob allegedly comprising then Congress MP Sajjan Kumar and others attacked Rajnagar house of Jagdish Kaur in Delhi Cantt, killing her husband, elder son and three cousins, the real brothers of Jagsher Singh
• 17 affidavits filed against Sajjan before Ranganath Mishra Commission in 1985
• 2005: Nanavati Commission ordered CBI to reopen three cases, including the case of Jagdish Kaur and Jagsher Singh
• April 30, 2013: Karkardooma court sentenced then Cong MLA Mahendra Yadav, then councillor Balwan Khokar to life term, 3 others to three-year jail for rioting; Sajjan Kumar acquitted
• CBI, victims file appeal in HC against acquittal, light sentences