Sajjan Kumar’s appeal against conviction to be heard on Nov 19

The Delhi High Court on Friday listed for November 19 the hearing of an appeal filed by former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar against his conviction and life sentence in a murder case linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The matter was earlier scheduled to be taken up by a Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain but could not be heard as the court did not sit.

The case will now come up next month for further consideration. Kumar, who is already serving a life term in another 1984 riots case, was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 25 this year by a Delhi trial court for his role in the killing of two persons, Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh, on November 1, 1984.

While awarding the sentence, the trial court noted that though the crime involved the “brutal killing of two innocent persons,” it did not qualify as a “rarest of rare case” deserving death penalty.

The court said Kumar’s advanced age and medical condition were factors that weighed in favour of granting him a lesser punishment.

The trial court observed that the incident formed part of the same sequence of riots for which the Delhi High Court in December 2018 had already convicted Kumar for the killing of five people.

He was found guilty then of leading a mob that set houses ablaze and killed members of the Sikh community following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In the latest case, the court held Kumar guilty of being part of a mob that looted and torched the victims’ home before killing them. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 2.4 lakh.

Under the law, the offence of murder carries a maximum punishment of death and a minimum of life imprisonment.