The Delhi High Court convicted Sajjan Kumar in the case and ordered his surrender before December 31.
New Delhi: Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar Thursday approached the Delhi High Court seeking time till January 31 to surrender in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which he was recently sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kumar, who was directed by the high court on Monday to surrender before authorities by December 31, sought more time saying he has to settle family affairs.
Advocate Anil Sharma, representing Kumar, said they need some more time to file an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the high court’s verdict and Kumar has to settle his family matters relating to his children and property.
The plea is likely to come up for hearing on Friday.
The case relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-I area in Palam Colony in South West Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar part II during that period.
Sajjan Kumar, 73, the senior Congress leader sentenced to life for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has been a key player in Delhi politics since the 1970s.
Kumar, an influential Jat leader, began his career as a councillor in 1977 before going on to serve as a Member of Parliament from Outer Delhi on three occasions since 1980.
He was convicted Monday in the killing of five members of a family in Raj Nagar in Delhi on 1 November 1984. At least 3,000 people were killed when mobs allegedly led by Congress leaders targeted Sikhs after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
The anti-Sikh riots case began dogging his political career from the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when the Congress, bowing to public pressure, withdrew the tickets it had handed to Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, another accused in the case.
Since 2009, Kumar has been sidelined by the Congress due to the case. The senior leadership felt that his “active presence” in the party and the functioning of the party could impact its poll prospects.
In 2013, however, the Congress fielded Kumar’s son from the South Delhi constituency of Sangam Vihar. He was defeated in the assembly elections.
The Congress continued to keep Kumar at an arm’s length even though in 2013 a lower court acquitted him in the case on grounds that the testimony of the eyewitness, Jagdish Kaur, who had lost her son, husband and three brothers in the riots, was inconsistent.
Following the acquittal, the CBI challenged the lower court’s order alleging that the mobs engaged in “a planned communal riot” and “religious cleansing”.
Kumar has now been sentenced to life imprisonment until his natural death. The conviction of five others — Mahendra Yadav, Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal, Kishan Khokhar and Balwan Khokhar — was affirmed by the high court, along with the life sentences they were handed. -PTI
1. As it is 34 years have elapsed since riots happened. Let us not overlook this long period in completion of case filed against Sajjan Kumar. My fear is that Sajjan Kumar will make every effort to avoid imprisonment. Is there a guarantee that Sajjan Kumar will not get a stay of the High Court order of life imprisonment? 2. We as citizens wish to know from apolitical legal experts what needs to be done urgently to ensure that no criminal case, particularly against a politician, drags on (for say) five years or more. 3. Incidentally, I wish to say that the way our politicians work, our Courts work, our judicial system works, and way we citizens react to delays in judicial processes, I think are all matters of disgrace. Do we deserve to call ourselves a democracy?