Sajjan Kumar to be tried for 1984 riots

The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's petition challenging the charges framed against him by a lower court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Harish V Nair reports.

The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's petition challenging the charges framed against him by a lower court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

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The trial against him and four others - Brahmanand Gupta, Peru, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash Pial - in relation to the killing of six people in Sultanpuri will resume on July 30 at the lower court in Karkardooma.

The HC said there was "prima-facie" evidence against Kumar.

On Kumar's argument that there were contradictions in the statements of various witnesses, Justice Suresh Kait said, "The veracity of such statements has to be examined during the trial and not at the stage of framing of charges."

In 2010, the Karkardooma court had framed charges -including those of murder, rioting, destruction of property and spreading of enmity between two communities - against the five accused.

Kumar, Gupta and Pial had filed petitions challenging the framing of these charges, and all three pleas were rejected on Tuesday.

The court also dismissed a petition filed by Sheela Kaur, a victim's relative, to invoke a charge of criminal conspiracy against the accused.

Tuesday's order means that Kumar's relief following acquittal on April 30 in another riots case has turned out to be short-lived.

But the trial in the present case had been deferred in September 2010 as the court was hearing the second case related to the deaths of five people in Delhi Cantonment. Kumar was acquitted in that case on April 30.