SC to hear Sajjan Kumar’s bail petition in August

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said it would hear in the first week of August the bail application of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was awarded life term by the Delhi high court in a 1984 anti-sikh riots case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a bench of justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer that offence for which Kumar was convicted was of “gruesome nature” as it was “genocide”.

Kumar, 73, who is lodged in jail, had resigned from the Congress after he was convicted by the high court. The case in which he was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar Part-i area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2 in 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-ii.

Anti-sikh riots had broken out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.

Kumar has also challenged in the apex court the Delhi high court’s verdict of December 17 last year that awarded him life imprisonment for the “remainder of his natural life” in the 1984 anti-sikh riots case.

During the hearing Monday, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, told the apex court that Kumar is facing trial in another 1984 anti-sikh riots case at the Patiala House district court here. Mehta said recording of evidence was going on in the case and out of 35 prosecution witnesses, seven have been examined to date. The counsel representing Kumar said the former Congress leader was granted anticipatory bail by the high court in the case in which trial is going on and it was affirmed by the apex court also. “This will have to be heard fully,” the bench said. When Sajjan’s counsel said that hearing on bail plea would not take much time, Mehta said: “See the gruesome nature of offence. It was genocide.” The bench said it would hear the matter in the first week of August. On April 8, the CBI had opposed his bail plea and claimed in the court that Kumar was the “kingpin” of a gruesome offence in which Sikhs were “massacred” in Delhi during 1984 riots. However, the counsel representing Kumar had said the former Congress leader was in jail for more than three months and during the adjudication of the trial, he was out on anticipatory bail and never misused the liberty.