New Delhi, January 01: Twenty-five years after anti-Sikh riots shook the Capital, Delhi lieutenant-governor Tejinder Khanna gave sanction for prosecution of former MP and senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar who allegedly led mobs that killed many innocents in the resettlement colonies in north-west Delhi.
CBI sources said they had sought permission to file chargesheets under Section 153A of IPC in four cases in which Kumar was found to have actively instigated riots against the minority community. While three of these cases are related to riots in Sultanpuri, one pertains to an incident at Rajnagar in the Palam area. “The three cases in Sultanpuri will be clubbed together in a single chargesheet while a separate one will be filed for the Palam case,” said an official.
The delay in prosecuting the Congress leader, who was denied a Congress ticket for the last Lok Sabha polls after a huge uproar, and the fact that he is being charged under 153A which carries a maximum sentence of three years is unlikely to satisfy the kin of victims as well as the larger civil society that has been campaigning for punishment to the guilty.
Kumar, the “strongman” of Outer Delhi, did not seem too fazed by this development and his plan for his annual new year lunch — a sumptuous feast of makke ki roti and sarson ka saag with lassi — was very much on course.
Kumar has been accused of leading mobs which attacked Sikhs allegedly to avenge the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh guards. While many of the witnesses subsequently turned hostile, a couple of them are sticking to their guns that Kumar choreographed the violence.
The case was registered against Kumar after the G T Nanavati Commission report in February 2005 recommended fresh examination of complaints in which he had been named and no chargesheet had been filed.
Earlier this month, home minister P Chidambaram had told the Rajya Sabha that he had advised Khanna to dispose of the issue by month-end.
The government had said that the sanction from competent authority was required to prosecute accused persons. However, Delhi government sources said blaming the delay on the need to obtain sanction for prosecution was mere “eyewash”. “CBI needed permission only for one case. It could have gone ahead and chargesheeted Sajjan Kumar with the others,” a source said.
CBI has completed investigation or re-investigation of seven cases including that of Kumar and late Dharam Das Shastri. In four cases, the probe agency had sought permission from the competent authority — the L-G of Delhi — to prosecute the accused.
Meanwhile, the main Opposition BJP asked why Jagdish Tytler was being “spared” and demanded time-bound trial against the accused. “What about Jagdish Tytler (another Congress leader accused in the riots)? Why is he not being prosecuted? And why was there so much delay,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Sources also pointed out that 25 years later, charges of rioting or causing damage to public property were pointless and could not be pursued. CBI had filed a closure report in court in connection with Tytler’s case, saying that no evidence was found against him.
“The people of India want justice in the heinous crimes committed against innocent Sikhs who were killed and had to face atrocities. The guilty should be prosecuted immediately and in a time-bound trial,” Prasad said.
Tytler and Kumar were given tickets in the last general elections by Congress but the party had to change its decision after a public outcry. Kumar was replaced by his brother Ramesh Kumar as the candidate for South Delhi.
-Agencies