Congress MP Sajjan Kumar's alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is back under scanner with CBI moving a Delhi court for all documents concerning two separate cases of murder, rioting and dacoity against him which were earlier closed.
After examining the report of Nanavati Commission, which indicted the Delhi Congress strongman, the CBI said in an affidavit filed before a Metropolitan Magistrate "despite statements by witnesses indicating involvement of Kumar, no chargesheets were filed against him and cases were terminated as untraced."
The CBI is acting on Centre's directive to re-open cases against Kumar, former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler and some other leaders against whom the Commission found "credible evidence" of involvement in the riots which broke out following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Tytler was forced to quit the Union Cabinet, while Kumar resigned as Chairman of Delhi Rural Development Board after their indictment created a political storm as Opposition parties and Sikh religious groups raised a hue and cry.
Both the cases against Kumar lodged at the Sultanpuri police station were re-registered by the probe agency later last year.
{{/usCountry}}Both the cases against Kumar lodged at the Sultanpuri police station were re-registered by the probe agency later last year.
{{/usCountry}}The CBI has sought possession of original documents of the cases, statements of witnesses filed by Delhi Police, a copy of closure report dated February 8, 1994, orders of a Metropolitan Magistrate dated February 28, 2004 on acceptance of closure report and case diaries.
Another Magistrate court had earlier accepted the closure reports in both matters filed by Delhi Police, which said the assailants, could not be "traced".
In one of the two FIRs in question, Joginder Singh, a resident of Sultanpuri in west Delhi alleged that Sajjan Kumar, the outer Delhi MP, had on November 1, 1984 "brought a mob of ruffians and told them they had 72 hours' freedom to kill Sikhs and no Sikh should escape".
Singh further related how his 32-year-old brother Surjeet Singh was "dragged out and burnt alive". "I was not allowed to save my brother and was pushed away by the assailants," he had further said in his affidavit.
In the second FIR filed by one Anek Kaur of the same area said she saw Sajjan Kumar, accompanied by another Congress leader Jai Kishan, threaten people gheraoed by a rampaging mob that "all members of the Sikh community would be killed".