Team News Riveting
New Delhi, February 25
A Delhi court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to former Congress member of Parliament Sajjan Kumar in connection with the murder of a father-son duo in Saraswati Vihar area of the national capital during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Special Judge Kaveri Baweja had reserved her order on February 21 after hearing arguments on quantum of sentence. The Court rejected the prosecution and complainant’s prayer seeking death penalty for Kumar. The judge acknowledged that offences committed by Kumar were brutal and reprehensible.
“At the same time, there are certain mitigating factors which, in my opinion, weigh in favour of imposing a lesser sentence, instead of the death penalty. The ‘satisfactory’ conduct of the Convict as per the report of the Jail authorities, the ailments from which he is reportedly suffering, the fact that the Convict has roots in the society and the possibility of his reformation and rehabilitation are material considerations which, in my opinion, tilt the scales in favour of sentence for life imprisonment instead of death penalty,” the Court said.
The Court had earlier found that Kumar in 1984 had instigated a mob, which was armed with deadly weapons like lathis and sarias.
“Accused Sajjan Kumar, being a member of such unlawful assembly, is guilty of having committed the murder of S. Jaswant Singh and S. Tarundeep Singh, the husband and son of the Complainant PW-13, during the incident of rioting which occurred on 01.11.1984,” the Court said in the judgment dated February 12. As per the prosecution, on November 1, 1984, S Jaswant Singh and his son S Tarun Deep Singh, residents of Raj Nagar in West Delhi, were killed by a mob led by Kumar comprising thousands.
The first information report (FIR) in the case was registered on the basis of an affidavit of September 9, 1985 of the complainant, whose identity was kept concealed.
In 2015, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to reinvestigate the cases of 1984 riots following which the complainant in the case recorded her statement on November 23, 2016.
Kumar was arrested in the case on April 6, 2021 while he was lodged in Tihar Jail undergoing his life sentence in another case related to the 1984 riots.
The prosecution alleged that Kumar was leading a mob and instigated the unlawful assembly to resort to “large-scale rioting, arson and looting”.
