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1984 anti-Sikh riots: SC to hear Sajjan Kumar’s plea against sentence in July
A bench of Justice J K Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar on Monday clarified if the final hearing could not take place as scheduled, the petitioners would have the liberty to request the court to consider the prayer of the suspension of sentences
The Supreme Court will hear pleas filed by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and the party’s former councillor Balwan Khokhar against sentences awarded in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in July.
A bench of Justice J K Maheshwari and Aravind Kumar on Monday clarified if the final hearing could not take place as scheduled, the petitioners would have the liberty to request the court to consider the prayer of the suspension of sentences.
The top court summoned the trial court records, which will be supplied to all parties concerned.
In July 2024, SC asked the CBI to respond to Khokhar’s plea seeking reprieve.
Khokhar’s life sentence was upheld by the Delhi high court in 2018. It reversed Kumar’s acquittal by a trial court in 2013, in a case related to killings of five Sikhs in southwest Delhi on November 1 and 2, 1984, and setting ablaze a gurdwara.
In his plea, Khokhar said the jail authorities had rejected his plea on September 26, 2024, saying his release would invite adverse repercussions and disturb peace and tranquillity in the society, prompting unrest.
He said he had moved an intervention application for bail but had already undergone a sentence of over 8 years by then, and the plea was dismissed on February 3, 2023.
Large-scale violence and killings of persons from the Sikh community took place in the national capital following former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her bodyguards in 1984.
