The members of 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims’ family on Saturday challenged the trial court’s order of acquitting Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and contended that the trial court failed to appreciate the large number of legally admissible evidence in its verdict.
Jagdish Kaur and Nirpreet Kaur, who had lost their close relatives in the carnage following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, filed the appeal and sought setting aside of the trial court’s April 30 judgment.
The petitioners contended in the plea that the verdict was “erroneous” as the trial court had failed to appreciate that there were ample legally admissible evidence against Kumar to show that he had allegedly “engineered” the murders of five Sikh persons in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment.
They also submitted that the trial court ignored the statements of Jagdish Kaur, Jagsher Kaur and Nirpreet Kaur, who were direct witness to Kumar’s presence and “speech of hatred” given by him on November 2, 1984.
On April 30, allowing Kumar to walk free in the case, the trial court in its 129-page verdict said the subsequent testimony of victim Jagdish Kaur that she had seen him instigating a mob with his provocative speech was “not acceptable and believable”.
The court had acquitted Sajjan Kumar, a former Lok Sabha MP from Outer Delhi, but convicted five others — Balwan Khokkar, an ex-councillor, Mahender Yadav, an ex-MLA, Kishan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal — for their involvement in the case.
The aforesaid case deals with the death of five Sikhs — Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh — who were members of the same family Kehar and Gurpreet were the husband and son, respectively, of the complainant and eye witness Jagdish Kaur while Raghuvender, Narender and Kuldeep were the brothers of Kaur and another witness Jagsher Singh.