As a setback for Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed his pleas challenging involvement in charges of murder and riot in a 1984 Anti-Sikh riots case.
With the high court’s verdict, the trial against all the five accused will resume in the lower court. Along with Sajjan, two others had also challenged the lower court’s order of framing charges against them.
The court upheld the trial court’s order saying charges could be framed against Kumar if suspicions strengthen.
The case relates to the killings of six persons in Delhi's Sultanpuri area. The court also dismissed the plea of complainant Sheela Kaur, a riot victim who had filed a cross-appeal seeking to invoke an additional charge of criminal conspiracy against Kumar and four others in the case."All (pleas) dismissed," Justice Kait said in his verdict.
Besides the Congress leader, co-accused Ved Prakash Pial alias Vedu Pradhan and Brahmanand Gupta had also moved the high court challenging framing of charges against them.
In July 2010, the lower court had framed charges against Kumar, Brahmanand Gupta, Peru, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash in connection with the case of killing of six persons in the riots that occurred after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Besides charges of murder and rioting, the trial court had also framed charges for the offence of spreading enmity between two communities against the accused in the case.
CBI filed two chargesheets against Kumar and others in January 2010 in the riots cases registered in 2005 on the recommendation of Justice G T Nanavati Commission which had probed the sequence of events leading to the violence. A lower court had recently acquitted Kumar in another 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.