SAJJAN KUMAR USED CLOUT TO DERAIL ’84 RIOTS CASES: CBI TO SC
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday urged the Supreme Court to uphold the life sentence given to former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar by the Delhi high court and opposed his plea for bail, saying he has been using his “large political clout” to derail the trial and influence witnesses in the 1984 anti-sikh riots cases.
NEW DELHI: Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, 73, has been using his “large political clout” to derail trial and influence witnesses in cases related to 1984 anti-sikh riots, the CBI told the Supreme Court on Friday while seeking that the life term given to him should be upheld.
Kumar has challenged in the top court the Delhi High Court’s December 17, 2018, verdict sentencing him to life term in a case related to killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar Part-i area of southwest Delhi on November 1 and 2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-ii. In response to Kumar’s application seeking suspension of sentence and grant of bail, the CBI has said that he is capable of “influencing/terrorising witnesses” and fair trial would not be possible in the case pending against him, if he is granted bail.
The CBI said brutal murders during the 1984 riots fall under the category of “crimes against humanity on parity with well known genocides worldwide like large scale killing of Armenians by Kurds and Turks, mass extermination of Jews by Nazis, mass killing of Bangladeshi citizens by the sympathisers of Pakistani Army and mass killing during ethnic riots in India also”.
Opposing Kumar’s application, the agency said that in this case the minority community was targeted by “spearheaded attacks of dominant political actors like the applicant/convict (Kumar) and duly facilitated by law enforcement agencies”.
In view of Kumar’s conduct in “using his political clout to derail trial and influence witnesses”, his sentence must be upheld and bail should not be granted, the CBI said.