‘Anti-Sikh’ riots 1984: Delhi High Court admits CBI’s appeal against acquittal of Sajjan Kumar

Sajjan Kumar. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Delhi High Court has admitted an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the acquittal of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar and others in a murder and rioting case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

In an Order passed on October 21, a Bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Amit Sharma granted ‘leave to appeal’ to the probe agency against the trial court’s decision of September 20, 2023, and listed the matter for further consideration in December.

‘Leave to appeal’ is a formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court. “In the opinion of this Court, the CBI’s leave to appeal deserves to be granted…The leave petition is allowed…Admit,” the court said in the Order.

The court also admitted the appeal by the victim Sheela Kaur, in case against the order of acquittal, and asked the registry to put up a report on the existence of any other appeals relating to the 1984 riots against the present accused persons.

On September 20, 2023, Special Judge Geetanjli Goel had acquitted Kumar in the case by giving him the “benefit of doubt” and said the prosecution “failed to prove the charge against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt”.

The trial court had also acquitted two other accused, Ved Prakash Pial and Brahmanand Gupta, holding that the prosecution failed to prove the case of murder and rioting against them. A Sikh man Surjit Singh was killed during the incident in Sultanpuri.

The slow, tortuous path to justice: Sajjan Kumar’s conviction

Kumar was accused of various offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including promoting enmity between various groups on grounds of religion, race etc. (Section 153A), abetment of any offence (Section 109), murder (Section 302) and rioting (147).

The riots had broken out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Kumar is currently lodged in Tihar jail serving life-term after conviction in another case related to the riots.