Sajjan shouldn’t have been given pre-arrest bail, SIT to Delhi HC

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Sajjan Kumar should not have been granted anticipatory bail by a trial court ina 1984 anti-Sikh rio ts case, the Delhi high court was on Thursday told by a special investigation team (SIT).

Additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain, appearing for the SIT, which is probing the charges against him, told justice Anu Malhot rat hat witnesses were not coming forward as the Congress leader was not in custody.

Kumar was granted anticipatory bail by a trial court on December 21 last year ina case of killing of three Sikhs during the riots which had occurred after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Jain argued before the high court that the trial court had erred in granting the relief to the former MP on the ground of lap se of time.

Jain said the witnesses and their families as well as the kin of the victims of the riots had fled to Punjab fearing for their lives and it was only now that they were coming forward.

He said that witnesses would be required to be confronted with Kumar and if he was out of custody, the witnesses would not come forward and gave the example of one such person whose statement was recorded before a court in Chandigarh.

Jain said that truth will remain as such even with the passage of time.