New Delhi: Twenty-nine years after the gruesome 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is expected, Tuesday, to make final arguments in the case against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar.
The hearing is expected to conclude tomorrow, the CBI had commenced final arguments in the case in March, last year. Sajjan Kumar is facing trial for his alleged role in instigating the mob to kill Sikhs after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
During the last hearing, the trial court had slammed the CBI, saying if the agency failed to conclude its arguments in the next hearing, the court would be forced to go ahead and deliver its order.
Sajjan Kumar is facing trial along with five others – Balwan Khokkar, Kishan Khokkar, Mahender Yadav, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal – for allegedly inciting a mob against the Sikh community in Delhi Cantonment area.
The Delhi High Court in February 2010 had ordered quick disposal of all pending 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, including that of Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, and had said that they should be concluded within six months in the lower courts.
During the trial, Sajjan Kumar’s counsel had questioned the conduct of complainant and key witness Jagdish Kaur, who had lost her family members during the riots in 1984.
He argued that Jagdish Kaur in her statements to judicial commissions, set up to probe riot related cases, had said she did not take the name of Sajjan Kumar earlier as she was “scared and the situation was anti-Sikh” that time.