1984 riots: HC upholds five-year jail term to 89 for violence in Trilokpuri

JUSTICE They were sentenced in 1996, 16 appellants dead

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld a trial court order that had sentenced 89 people to five years in jail for rioting in Trilokpuri’s residential areas during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

But only 70 of them would serve the sentence because 16 of them died during the pendency of trial. The court also dismissed the appeals of three others who went absconding.

The court was hearing a batch of appeals against the trial court’s verdict in 1996.

The 89 people were convicted for rioting, looting and burning houses in Trilokpuri between October 31 and November 3, 1984, soon after the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. While hearing their appeals, the high court had suspended their fiveyear jail term and let them off on bail.

“The large scale rioting, mob violence, arson, plunder, genocide and looting has been duly proved and established... On the foregoing facts, and in the circumstances, the judgment of the trial court returning finding of guilty convicting the appellants must be upheld,” the court said.

Dismissing the appeals, Justice R K Gauba directed the convicts to surrender.

“The bail bonds of the appellants are cancelled. They are directed to forthwith surrender to undergo the punishment awarded against them. The trial court is directed to take all necessary measures, including issuance of requisite processes to ensure due enforcement and execution of the sentences in accordance with law."

“The Commissioner of Police and officers or agencies under his control shall render all assistance to the trial court in this duty,” the court said in its 79-page order. The court added that after each communal riot, there were

NEW DELHI:

allegations of political influences being the root cause and therefore, there might be a need to “inject” a “sense of neutrality” in the investigative and prosecution process. “Towards this end, the possibility of entrusting such tasks to authorities other than normal agencies of the State needs to be explored,” the high court said while suggesting reforms that should be brought to criminal law while dealing with such cases. It added that a copy of the judgment be sent to the Secretary (Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs), Government of

India, and to the Secretary, Law Commission of India, for their consideration.

The long arm of the law is catching up with the culprits involved in the riots, with two verdicts pronounced in the last 10 days, which included death penalty to a convict for killing of two men. In the first verdict on November 20 after the riots-related cases were reopened by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2015, a trial court here had awarded capital punishment to Yashpal Singh and life imprisonment to Naresh Sherawat, holding that Singh’s offence fell under the “rarest of rare” category warranting the death penalty.

The Delhi Police had closed this case in 1994 for want of evidence. In the present case, four FIRs were registered and chargesheet was filed in December 20, 1985. The charges were framed on December 4, 1995 against 93 out of whom 89 were convicted.

The judgment also noted that 22 of the total bodies remained unidentified and it was likely that no prosecution was initiated against anyone in respect of these deaths.