Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday welcomed the first death conviction by a Delhi court in 1984 riots case as “long overdue”. His predecessor and Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, also welcoming the verdict, said that the judgement is proof of what a change in the government at the Centre can achieve in securing justice for thousands of innocent Sikhs.
“Justice has finally been meted out to the perpetrators of the heinous crimes,” said Capt Amarinder while reacting to the conviction of two men, one with death sentence, found guilty by a Delhi court of killing two persons in South Delhi’s Mahipalur during the riots.
It has taken more than 30 years for the court to deliver justice in this case, the Chief Minister noted, adding that he hoped that the other cases would also soon be settled by the judiciary.
“The riot cases, which left a deep scar on the national consciousness, need to be expedited and taken to their logical conclusion at the earliest,” said Capt Amarinder, who had personally visited the refugee camps to help the victims in the aftermath of the unprecedented riots, which left thousands dead and lakhs homeless.
The Chief Minister has expressed the hope that others involved in the attacks would also soon be brought to book for their horrendous and inhuman acts.
Senior Badal said that this “is the first blow in favour of justice and the judgement is proof of what a change in government at the Centre can achieve in securing justice for thousands of innocent Sikhs as these cases had been closed by the previous Congress Government at the Centre and had been reopened only when the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered these to be reopened at the behest of the SAD”.
Notably, Badal, along with his son and SAD president Sukhbir Badal had met Modi in 2015 urging him to get about thousands of cases reopened and reinvestigated. Subsequently, the NDA Government ordered the setting up of an SIT which reinvestigated the entire sequence of events leading to the conviction and sentence today.
“I hope this is just the stepping stone and this will lead to the delivery justice to thousands of other innocent victims. For the first time, I see a hope that the long arm of law and justice will reach powerful people like Jagish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar,” said Badal.
SAD chief Sukhbir Badal described the judgement “as the first really positive development in the past nearly 34 years”, saying that the Sikh community will feel some relief and confidence that they can get justice in this country.
Sukhbir said that this judgement should become a precedent for similar cases being tried after the NDA Government had ordered the reopening of the cases closed by the successive Congress Government.
“The Sikhs can now have some hope that men like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler will not go scott-free....I hope that this will open the gates for justice for thousands of others who had been denied justice because of the stonewalling tactics of the previous Congress Governments at the Centre,” he said adding that now “it is the turn of the two big butchers of Delhi – Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar to face the hangman’s noose”.