The Congress never made a sincere effort to deliver justice to the victims of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and it was only after Narendra Modi took over in 2014 that a team was set up to probe the case, which led to the conviction of two people on Tuesday, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.
A Delhi court had awarded death penalty to Yashpal Singh and ordered life imprisonment to Naresh Sherawat on Tuesday for the killing of two men during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi leaving. The riots left nearly 3,000 people dead across the country.
In the first verdict after the riots-related cases were reopened by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2015, the court held that Singh’s offence fell under the “rarest of rare” category warranting the death penalty. Delhi Police had closed this case in 1994 for lack of evidence.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party expressed satisfaction over the sentence and said it will finally apply a balm on the wounds of the riot victims who waited for years to get justice.
“Except for the period during VP Singh’s prime ministership, the Congress was either in power or supporter a government from outside between 1984 and 1998. It also ruled the country between 2004 and 2014. The Congress needs to explain what concrete steps it took to deliver justice,” Prasad said.
{{/usCountry}}“Except for the period during VP Singh’s prime ministership, the Congress was either in power or supporter a government from outside between 1984 and 1998. It also ruled the country between 2004 and 2014. The Congress needs to explain what concrete steps it took to deliver justice,” Prasad said.
{{/usCountry}}The senior BJP leader alleged that probe commissions in the past were stopped from indicting political leaders or police officer.
“With his statement that earth shakes when a big tree falls, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi tried to justify what had happened,” Prasad said. “This was a clear message to everyone to hush-up the investigation.”
Congress has never distanced itself from this statement by Gandhi, Prasad said.
The BJP leader alleged when a commission under former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ved Marwah was closer to indicting some police officers for their role in the riots, the Union home ministry sent out an instruction to it to go slow.
“Ranganath Mishra Commission was formed in 1985 and he said that 1984 was not an organised crime it was a mismanagement by the police. And, he was made a Congress RS member after his retirement,” Prasad said.