Justice delayed is justice denied” goes the saying and it was amply manifested on Tuesday when a city court pronounced first ever “death sentence” in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT). A Delhi court awarded death penalty to Yashpal Singh for killing two men during the riots. Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Pandey awarded life-term to co-convict Naresh Sherawat in the case.
On November 1, 1984, Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh were attacked and killed by a mob in Mahipalpur in South Delhi. It is the first conviction in the cases reopened by the SIT of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Delhi Police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. However, a SIT reopened it.
The verdict was pronounced on Tuesday in Tihar Jail after the local police moved a petition in the High Court citing security reasons and possibility of attack on the convicts on the premises of the Delhi court, said police.
The SIT is investigating nearly 60 cases related to the riots, while it has filed “untraced report” in 52 cases. While this is the first death penalty after the SIT was formed, one Kishori was earlier given the death penalty by a trial court in a related case.
