1984 riots: SC notice to CBI on convict Balwan Khokhar’s bail plea

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 30

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to CBI on an interim bail plea of former Delhi Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar who is serving life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case.

Khokhar — who is lodged in Tihar Jail along with former Delhi Congress leader Sajjan Kumar following their conviction in December 2018 — urged the top court to grant him interim bail or parole for eight weeks in view of COVID-19.

The Delhi High Court had upheld Khokhar’s life sentence and reversed Kumar’s acquittal ordered by the trial court in 2013.

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

This particular case related to the killings of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar Part-I area in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

Earlier, he was granted four-week parole on January 15 for last rites of his father.

Sajjan Kumar too is seeking bail but the top court had said that it would take up his plea during summer vacation.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde issued the notice to CBI after Khokhar’s counsel cited the top court’s order to decongest prisons to contain spread of COVID-19.

It asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, that the agency should file its response.

During the hearing conducted via video conferencing, senior counsel HS Phoolka opposed Khokhar’s bail plea on behalf of riot victims.

Phoolka took part in the hearing from his native village in Punjab.

Khokhar submitted that he was a senior citizen suffering from diabetes, hypertension and severe joint pains and has been in jail for over six years.