New Delhi: A woman witness, who lost five of
her family members during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, on Friday
claimed before a court conducting trial against Congress
leader Sajjan Kumar that she had cremated her husband and son
using the chairs and doors of her house as the wood the pyre.
"With the help of neighbours, I cremated my husband and
son by taking out wood from chairs and doors of the house,"
Jagdish Kaur told Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta.
The 69-year-old witness was being cross examined for the
eighth day in a row during the on-going trial against Kumar
and others.
"I did not state in my statements or affidavits that when
the pyre was prepared, I came there and told those persons
that I was ready to go into the same pyre myself," she said,
during her cross examination by A K Sharma counsel for the
accused.
The witness was found to be making "improvement" from her
previous version recorded before Justice G T Nanavati
Commission which inquired into the sequence of events leading
to the riots in 1984 following the assassination of then Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31.
During her cross examination, Kaur denied she had been
tutored by CBI or any other advocate, including senior counsel
H S Phoolka who has been representing the victims. Kaur`s
cross examination remained inconclusive and would resume
tomorrow.
Kaur had on July 3 identified Kumar and his nephew
Khokkar, and other accused Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal as
accomplices who had allegedly instigated mobs during the 1984
carnage.
Kaur`s family members, including her husband Kehar Singh,
were killed in the riots.
CBI had filed two chargesheets against Kumar and others on
January 13 in the riots cases registered in 2005 on the
recommendation of Nanavati Commission.
PTI
