Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court on Wednesday convicted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the killings of two men in Saraswati Vihar on November 1, 1984, during the anti-Sikh riots. The arguments on the quantum of sentence in the case will take place on February 18.
The Congress leader, who is currently serving a life sentence in another anti-Sikh riots case in Delhi Cantonment, was produced from Tihar jail before special judge Kaveri Baweja, who pronounced the conviction order.
“I am of the opinion that Prosecution has been able to prove its case against the Accused beyond reasonable doubt. Thus, Accused Sajjan Kumar S/o Ch.Raghunath Singh is hereby convicted for offences punishable under Sections 147/148/149 IPC and for offences punishable under Sections 302/308/323/395/397/427/ 436/440 read with Section 149 IPC,” Special Judge Kaveri Baweja said in her 139 pages order on Wednesday.
The order said, “I am of the considered opinion that the Prosecution has been able to bring home the guilt of the Accused. It has been established that the Accused was instigating the mob, which was armed with deadly weapons i.e. lathis and sarias etc. and that the mob being an ‘unlawful assembly’ within the meaning of Section 141 IPC used force and violence in prosecution of the common object of looting, committed the offence of rioting armed with deadly weapons. Further, the fact that the members of the ‘unlawful assembly’ were armed with iron rods, lathis, bricks etc. also proves that alleged offences were committed after having made preparations for committing such offences”.
The case attracts a maximum punishment of death penalty and life-term imprisonment as the minimum sentence. Kumar was produced before the court from Tihar jail to pronounce the verdict. He was convicted for the murder of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh on November 1, 1984.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja aside from saying that a mob took part in rioting and killed the victims, held, “It has further been established that Kumar, being a member of such unlawful assembly, is guilty of having committed the murder of Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh, the husband and son of the complainant, during the incident.”
The conviction judgment said, “The complainant who witnessed the brutal killing of her husband and son can certainly not be expected to forget the face of the person who was instigating the mob to carry out the said killings and looting and her deposition in court fortifies her stand that it is accused who was not only present during the alleged incident but also instigating and leading the mob which resulted in commission of the aforesaid offences.”
The judge rejected Kumar’s argument that the statement of the complainant couldn’t be trusted as she named him belatedly and held at the time of the incident, she was not aware of the identity of the accused as she was admittedly new to the area and had never seen him earlier.
Kumar was convicted under IPC Sections 147 (rioting), 302 (murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) 395 (dacoity), 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc), and 440 (mischief committed after preparation made for causing death or hurt) aside from other provisions.
“It is only when she was going through magazine after 1.5-2 months of the incident, that upon seeing the photograph of the accused, she was able to recollect that it was Kumar who was leading and instigating the mob on November 1, 1984. The version of the Complainant and her narration of the incident is natural and believable,” said the court.
Kumar is currently lodged in Tihar Jail serving a life sentence handed down by the Delhi High Court in 2018 in a case related to the killing of five Sikhs at Raj Nagar Part I in Palam Colony on November 1-2, 1984, and the burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part II.
The trial court had reserved the order after hearing the final arguments in the case last December. The conviction order is another significant milestone in the decades-long pursuit of justice for the victims of the anti-Sikh riots.
Though the Punjabi Bagh police station had initially registered the case, a special investigation team later took over the investigation. The SIT alleged that Kumar, who was then the Congress MP for Outer Delhi, led a mob that burnt alive the two Sikh men-Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh-and destroyed and looted their houses acting on his directions. The SIT was represented in the court by Additional Public Prosecutor Manish Rawat.
Kumar’s counsel Anil Kumar Sharma, Anuj Sharma and Apoorav Sharma argued that the complainants, the wife and the mother of the victims, had claimed to be an eyewitness in the case after a long delay of seven years and that their testimonies were therefore unreliable. The complainants were represented by senior advocate H S Phoolka and advocates Kamna Vohra and Gurbaksh Singh.
Widespread riots broke out in Delhi and other parts of the country after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for her order for the Army to storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar in June 1984 to flush out militants.
According to a report of the Nanavati Commission, constituted to probe the violence and its aftermath, there were 587 FIRs filed in Delhi in relation to the riots that saw killings of 2,733 people. Of the total, about 240 FIRs were closed by police as “untraced” and 250 cases resulted in acquittal.
Only 28 cases of 587 FIRs resulted in convictions, in which about 400 people were convicted. About 50, including Kumar, were convicted for murder. Currently there are about 20 cases pending in various courts in the national capital. The FIR in the Saraswati Vihar matter was registered in 1991 on the basis of an affidavit dated September 9, 1985, given by the complainant before the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, which was appointed in 1985 by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi “to inquire into the organised violence that took place in Delhi and also the disturbances in the Bokaro Tehsil and Chas Tehsil (both in present-day Jharkhand) and at Kanpur, and to recommend measures that may be adopted for prevention of recurrence of such incidents.”
On December 4, 2021, the Rouse Avenue Court of Special Judge M K Nagpal framed charges against the accused for the offences of murder, rioting with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly and attempt to commit culpable homicide, among others.
Kumar is currently serving a life sentence handed down by the Delhi high court in 2018 in a case related to the killing of five Sikhs at Raj Nagar Part I in Palam Colony on November 1-2, 1984, and the burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part II.
In September 2023, a Delhi court acquitted Kumar in a case related to the murder of seven people from the Sikh community in Sultanpuri during the 1984 riots. One case is pending against Kumar in the Rouse Avenue court, two appeals against his acquittals are pending in the high court, and an appeal against his conviction in one case is pending in the Supreme Court.
