1984 anti-Sikh riots: Court records former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar’s statement
A Delhi court on Monday recorded the statement of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar over the violence in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas in the capital during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
“I was not named by any of the witnesses. Decades later I was named. The case against me is false and politically motivated. I organised blood donation camps and peace marches to bring harmony in the area. My lie detector test was conducted where I voluntarily participated to prove my innocence," Kumar told Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh.
Asserting that he was innocent as there was no evidence against him, Kumar claimed a fair investigation was not conducted and he was being implicated by unsubstantiated allegations.
The court then posted the matter on July 29.
In February 2015, a special investigation team registered two FIRs against Kumar based on complaints of violence in the areas during the anti-Sikh riots. The first FIR was over the violence in Janakpuri, where two men — Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh — were killed on November 1, 1984.
The second FIR was registered in the case of Gurcharan Singh, who was allegedly set ablaze on November 2, 1984, in Vikaspuri.
Kumar (79) is already serving life imprisonment in another anti-Sikh riots related case and the Supreme Court has refused to grant him bail.
He has been in jail since December 31, 2018, when he surrendered after being convicted and awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in a case relating to the 1984 riots in Raj Nagar-I area in Palam Colony in South West Delhi — in which five Sikhs were killed on November 1-2, 1984, and a gurdwara was burnt down in Raj Nagar-II. His appeal against conviction and sentence order of the high court is pending in the Supreme Court.
Around 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed in the riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards. — with PTI inputs
Delhi