1984 anti-Sikh riots: SC to hear Sajjan Kumar's plea against conviction post Diwali break

New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's plea against conviction and life-term imprisonment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case post Diwali break.

The apex court's break begins October 20 following which it will resume work on October 27.

Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi, while hearing the matter, asked the counsel for the parties to specify about the allegations, testimony of witnesses and findings by the trial court and the high court in the case.

"When the reversal was made, what persuaded the high court to make a reversal," the bench said.

The high court had set aside the trial court's 2010 verdict which acquitted Kumar in the case.

While senior advocate R S Cheema appeared for the CBI, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan represented Kumar in the top court.

Besides Kumar's appeal, the pleas of co-convicts Balwan Khokhar and Girdhari Lal, were also listed for hearing in the apex court.

The case relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984 and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

Anti-Sikh riots broke out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards.

Kumar surrendered before a trial court in the capital on December 31, 2018 to serve the sentence in pursuance of the high court's December 17, 2018 judgment awarding him life imprisonment for the "remainder of his natural life".

After his conviction in the case, Kumar resigned from the Congress party.

The high court convicted and sentenced Kumar to spend the remainder of his life in jail for the offences of criminal conspiracy and abetment in commission of crimes of murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of communal harmony and defiling and destruction of a Gurdwara.

It also upheld the conviction and varying sentences awarded by a trial court to five others, including Khokhar and Lal.

The high court's verdict noted that over 2,700 Sikhs were killed in the national capital during the 1984 riots which was indeed a "carnage of unbelievable proportions".

It said the riots were a "crime against humanity" perpetrated by those who enjoyed "political patronage" and aided by an "indifferent" law enforcement agency.