Expected Sajjan Kumar to get death penalty, say riot victims

After a special court awarded life imprisonment to former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in connection with the murder of a father-son duo in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, victims settled here said justice was delivered extremely late.

The SGPC welcomed the punishment awarded to Delhi Sikh massacre accused Sajjan Kumar. With this decision, the families of the victims, which had been waiting for justice for four decades, would get some relief, said Kulwant Singh Manan, chief secretary of the SGPC. It was expected that the convict would be hanged, but life imprisonment was awarded to him, which was very less compared to his crime. He said the SGPC would continue its legal battle for strict punishment to the accused.

He said thousands of Sikhs were murdered in 1984. The carnage was led by people like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, whom the Congress always protected.

Questioning the role of Congress leadership, Manan said there should be a high-level investigation into the role of those who tried to protect the massacre perpetrators.

Riot survivor Balbir Kaur (80) said the punishment was too little and too late. A resident of the housing board colony at Ranjit Avenue, she recalled that her family comprising her husband Surjit Singh and two children (Kuldeep Singh and Sharanjit Kaur) resided in the Jagatpuri area in 1984. Their house was attacked by a mob as they had given shelter to some Sikh families. “Our house was torched. My husband was brutally assaulted and he had to live the rest of his life as a handicapped person,” she said. Balbir Kaur now resides with her son in Ranjit Avenue, while her daughter Sharanjit is settled with her husband and three children at Varpal village.

Another riot survivor Surjit Singh (65) said Sajjan Kumar used to lead mobs during that period. They were expecting capital punishment for him, he added.

At the time of riots, he and his family resided in Etawah (UP). As a 24-year-old youth, he saw his shop being looted. A month later, he visited Delhi and Kanpur and observed the horrendous outcome of the pogrom. He welcomed the Modi government’s move to start punishing the accused after the constitution of 14 commissions to probe riots.