New Delhi, Oct 17: The Delhi High Court on Friday said it will hear on November 19 an appeal by former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar challenging his conviction and life imprisonment in a murder case connected to the 1984 Sikh Massacre.
The appeal, initially scheduled before a bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain, could not be heard on Friday and has now been rescheduled. Kumar was awarded life imprisonment on February 25 by a trial court, which took into account his advanced age and illness while deciding against the death penalty.
The trial court noted that while the killings of “two innocent persons” in this case were grave offences, they did not constitute a “rarest of rare” scenario warranting capital punishment. The case pertains to the murders of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh on November 1, 1984. Under Indian law, murder carries a maximum punishment of death or a minimum of life imprisonment.
The court observed that the case was part of the same series of incidents for which Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018. In that case, he was found guilty of causing the deaths of five people during rioting following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Kumar was part of the mob that set fire to the victims’ house, brutally killed the two individuals, and looted their belongings. The trial court also imposed a fine of approximately Rs 2.4 lakh on him.
According to the Nanavati Commission report, 587 FIRs were registered in Delhi in connection with the 1984 Sikh Massacre, which left 2,733 people dead. Out of these FIRs, 240 were closed as “untraced,” 250 resulted in acquittals, and only 28 led to convictions, encompassing around 400 individuals. Among them, about 50, including Kumar, were convicted of murder.
At the time of the riots, Kumar was an influential Congress MP and was accused in the killings of five people in Delhi’s Palam Colony on November 1 and 2, 1984. While he was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court, his appeal challenging the sentence is now pending before the Supreme Court. (Agencies)
