The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) challenging the bail granted to former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, after noting his recent conviction. Justice Vikas Mahajan deemed the petition infructuous as Kumar has already been convicted and is now in custody.
The SIT had appealed against the trial court’s decision on April 27, 2022, to grant bail to Kumar, following his involvement in the murder of two individuals, Jaswant Singh and his son Tarun Deep Singh, during the riots in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar. The High Court had temporarily stayed this bail on July 4, 2022, and issued a notice to Kumar seeking his response.
The violence, which led to the injury of four others, was part of a broader wave of riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Kumar was implicated by a witness’s affidavit submitted to the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission of Inquiry in 1985, which detailed the November 1, 1984, incident where her husband and son were killed and burned by a mob allegedly instigated by Kumar.
The affidavit, which initially led to the registration of a rioting and murder case at Saraswati Vihar Police Station in 1991, stated that Kumar had played a direct role in inciting the mob. Despite the destruction of judicial records from another FIR at Punjabi Bagh Police Station, the allegations against Kumar have persisted over the decades.
Further compounding his legal troubles, Kumar was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killings of five other Sikhs and the arson of a Gurdwara in Raj Nagar on November 1-2, 1984. He is currently challenging this sentence in an appeal before the Supreme Court.
