1984 Riots: SC grants 4-week parole to former Cong councillor

The Supreme Court Wednesday granted 4-week parole to former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, convicted and sentenced to life in one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot

The Supreme Court Wednesday granted 4-week parole to former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, convicted and sentenced to life in one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases along with former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, for attending last rites of his deceased father.

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Khokhar’s life sentence was upheld by the Delhi high court in 2018, while it had reversed the acquittal of Kumar by the trial court in 2013, in a case related to the killings of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar Part-I area in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant directed that appellant (Balwan Khokhar) be released from jail on parole to attend the last rites of his deceased father.

“In the circumstances of the case, we consider it appropriate to grant parole to the appellant. Accordingly, we direct that appellant Balwan Khokhar be released on parole for a period of four weeks from today to the satisfaction of the trial court,” the bench said. At the outset, counsel appearing for Khokhar said that his client be released from jail to attend the last rites of his deceased father for four weeks.