For first time I feel this is my own country: Jagdish Kaur

NEW DELHI:Partially relieved by the conviction of Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Kaur, the prime complainant in the case against the Congress leader, today said her fight for justice was far from over and she would struggle till the last breath of her life.

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17

Partially relieved by the conviction of Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Kaur, the prime complainant in the case against the Congress leader, today said her fight for justice was far from over and she would struggle till the last breath of her life.

“I want Sajjan Kumar to hang. I have seen my son burn to death in front of my eyes. And this was done at the behest of Sajjan Kumar. I will go to the Supreme Court but I must say for the first time today I feel this is my own country. Till now I felt Indian laws were not for the 1984 riot survivors,” said Jagdish Kaur, flanked by cousin Jagsher Singh, both witnesses in the case the HC decided today.

She still remembers the afternoon of November 1, 1984, when “communally charged mobs incited by Sajjan Kumar” attacked her house in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar from all sides. “They had sariyas, other lethal weapons and pounced upon my son Gurpreet. My husband was dragged and his head crushed till he dropped dead. Gurpreet ran some distance before he was set on fire,” remembers Jagdish Kaur, wiping her tears.

She said after shifting her son’s body back into the house, she went to the police post to get help for cremation. “I still remember what the ASI said. He said ‘bhag yahan se, abhi to aur marenge,” recalls Kaur, who used furniture in the house to perform the last rites.

Even today Jagdish Kaur thanks her stars for sending her three small daughters and a son to a Hindu neighbour’s house for shelter.

“Not all Hindus wanted to kill Sikhs. These were only a few politically motivated crowds that wanted to earn brownie points in the eyes of their masters. I was saved by a Hindu, so were my cousin Jagdish Kaur’s four children,” remembers Jagsher, who lost three brothers to the carnage on November 2, 1984.

“It was November 2, a day after Jagdish Kaur lost her husband and 18-year-old son Gurpreet, a gold medallist in BSc. I had gone out of the house to park my bike when the crowds attacked. I ran and hid in a Hindu neighbour’s house. My brothers — Narinderpal Singh, Raghuvinder Singh and Kuldip Singh — were killed. The fight for justice has taken unbelievably long and it’s not yet over,” Jagsher Singh, now based in Gurdaspur, said.

For her part, Jagdish Kaur, who moved to Amritsar after riots, withstood threats and inducements to see this day. She slammed the Congress for appointing Kamal Nath, allegedly involved in the riots, as CM of Madhya Pradesh, saying, “I am not surprised. Sajjan Kumar also got top positions. This is their character. They have no value for human lives.”