It is high time 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases are decided at earliest: SC

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5

As 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases in Delhi continue to hang fire even after 34 years, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it was high time that these cases were decided.

Almost 3,000 people were killed, most of them in Delhi, in the anti-Sikh riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

“It is high time that these cases should be tried and adjudicated at the earliest,” said a Bench headed by Justice AK Sikri during hearing of a petition filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) challenging an order of the Delhi High Court which upheld a trial court’s decision to grant anticipatory bail to Delhi Congress leader Sajjan Kumar.

The Bench issued notice to Kumar on the petition by SIT – which is further investigating 186 cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases in Delhi. The SIT is headed by former Delhi High Court judge SN Dhingra.

The Bench issued notice after Attorney-General Maninder Singh, representing the SIT, told the top court that Kumar was not cooperating with the probe.

“Initially, he came with a battery of lawyers, dictated terms to the investigating officer and left. When he was summoned again, he came armed with the anticipatory bail order”, the ASG said seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail given to the Delhi Congress leader.

The high court had said everything would be tested in the trial but finally gave him anticipatory bail on the ground that there was no evidence, Singh said, terming it “totally contrary to the established procedure of law”.

Passage of 34 years could be a ground for anticipatory bail but the accused has to cooperate with the investigation, the Bench noted. However, it wondered why the HC had to dedicate an order running into 200 pages for anticipatory bail which could have done in just 40-50 pages.

The trial court in Delhi had granted anticipatory bail to Sajjan Kumar on December 21, 2016, in two cases of killing of three Sikhs during the 1984 riots. The order was upheld by the Delhi High Court on February 22 on the ground that according to records, Kumar was available during the probe.

Kumar had contended that his name never figured earlier and it was a case of fresh allegations coming up after 32 years.

The Supreme Court had on January this year appointed Justice SN Dhingra as head of the new SIT to further investigate 186 cases relating to the 1984 riot cases in the National Capital.

It had said the previous SIT had not carried out further probe into these 186 cases in which closure reports were filed. The top court had taken the decision after perusing the report of a two-judge supervisory panel which scrutinised 241 cases relating to the 1984 riots in Delhi closed by an earlier SIT formed by the NDA government for re-investigation.