1984 riots: Sajjan Kumar charged with two murders in Saraswati Vihar

The family members of the deceased -- Jaswant Singh and Tarun Deep Singh -- had alleged that a mob led by the former Congress MP burnt the two men alive on November 1, 1984 during the anti-Sikh riots

New Delhi: A Delhi court has charged former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar for the murder of a man and his son in west Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying that prima facie he was not only “a participant of the mob but also led it”.

Sajjan Kumar is currently lodged in a city jail after his conviction in another murder case related to the riots. (PTI)

The family members of the deceased -- Jaswant Singh and Tarun Deep Singh -- had alleged that a mob led by Kumar burnt the two men alive on November 1, 1984. They alleged that Kumar “instigated and abetted the unruly mob”. The complainants also alleged that the mob also set their house on fire.

Kumar is currently lodged in a city jail after his conviction in another murder case related to the riots.

On Friday, additional sessions judge MK Nagpal said his view regarding Kumar’s participation “is much stronger and the allegations, along with material, gives rise to grave suspicion”. The order was made available on Monday.

The court charged Kumar with murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, arson, attempt to culpable homicide, dacoity, voluntarily causing hurt, and causing mischief and robbery.

The judge, however, dropped the charges of attempt to murder, saying that there was no such common intention of the mob to kill the victim, as some participants of the mob itself had taken away or dragged the female victims to a nearby house for shelter and to save them from being killed by the crowd.

The court, however, added section 308 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), saying that the injuries suffered by the three female victims prima facie appear to have been inflicted with blunt objects, and with an “intention or knowledge that if their death was caused as a result thereof, then the accused and every other member of the above mob would have been guilty of the offence of culpable homicide”.

The court also dropped charges of destruction of evidence against Kumar, and directed him to appear on December 16 to complete further procedures.

The first information report in the case was registered on September 9, 1985 on the basis of an affidavit by the complainant. During the investigation, the police filed a final report before a magistrate court. The case was directed to be sent as untraced (case in which a closure report is filed) in 1994 after the court held that evidence collected by the investigating officer was not sufficient to initiate prosecution against any particular person.

In 2015, a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the central government to reinvestigate the cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, decided to reopen the case.

The SIT was formed, the team re-examined 293 cases which were closed by the Delhi police. Of the 293 cases, the team filed closure reports in 233 cases, citing lack of evidence. In 52 cases, the team filed reports in which the victims or the accused were not traced and started a probe in eight cases. Of the eight cases, the police filed a charge sheet in five and Kumar was named an accused in three cases.

Earlier, on December 17, 2018, the Delhi high court set aside Kumar’s earlier acquittal in one of the cases and convicted him for murder, rioting and provoking a mob. The case relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-1 area in the Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1 and 2, 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.