1984 Massacre – A Symbolic Justice

A country where the families of victims of massacre and mass killing have to wait over 34 years has no moral and political right to claim of having rule of law and also as a nation. 34 years after the frenzied mob lead by the political people of ruling party massacred over 2,700 Sikhs in Delhi alone, while the tentative figure of Sikhs killed across the county is said to be in over three times of Delhi toll.
Most of the accused held in earlier court decisions and in the recent months after the reopening of cases in 2015 were either Congress leaders or activists who have been sheltered for such a long time by scuttling the fair investigation by the police and politicians. Now, the veteran Congress leader Sajjan Kumar has been held guilty and sentence to life imprisonment. Along with him, the Delhi High Court has also pronounced sentences against three others to 10 years imprisonment for abetment to murder, rioting, looting, arson and a host of other offences.
While the political point-scoring and credit-taking for the conviction started moments after the verdict was pronounced, it is a shocking tale of collusion and bias by the police and prosecution that exposes the depth of the rot in the “system” that protected the accused for over three decades.
The bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel, in its 209-page judgment, has set out various instances that show that the police and prosecution agencies went out of their way to shield Sajjan Kumar and the other accused, while discouraging witnesses.
In another decision on November 15, the court of Addl Session Judge Sh. Ajay Pandey sentenced an accused of death penalty and to another life imprisonment for killing two Sikhs in Mahipalpur. The Court observed that the objective was to kill the people of Sikh Community; it was planned as the mob of 800 to 1000 people gather with rods, conventional weapons, stones and kerosene.Shockingly, the culprits of horrifying genocide of a community that continued for about four days and the factual incident known world over were not brought to book despite the fact that Congress ruled this country for two and half decades after the mass killing.
“A large number of acquittals in the cases demonstrated how the investigation was completely botched-up. It also demonstrated the power and influence of the accused and how witnesses could easily be won over,” observed the court in its judgment. It also noted that both the Delhi Police, and the specially created Riots Cell “did not carry out any serious and effective investigation into the murders,” and did not question several key witnesses. “The police indeed turned a blind eye and blatantly abetted the crimes committed by the rioting mob,” said the Delhi High Court, which has termed the investigations a “farce”.
The Congress has washed its hand by saying that the BJP is “politicising the victims” while claiming that an apology had been rendered by the former AICC president and equating the most unfortunate incident saying the BJP President and the current Prime Minister have done no such thing regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots. The systemic failures have led the court to observe that the riots were a “crime against humanity” and to call for change in the legal system so as to deal with “mass killings” and “genocide of this kind.