New Delhi: In fresh trouble for senior
Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, a Delhi Court on Saturday paved the
way for initiation of criminal proceedings against him in
another case relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riot.
The court rejected the plea of the Delhi police to club
the case involving Kumar with the ongoing trial in another
case relating to the carnage.
"There is no order on judicial records with regard to
clubbing to FIR no 67/87 (allegedly involving Kumar) with FIR
no 418/1991," District Judge S K Sarvaria said.
The court allowed an application filed by Special Public
Prosecutor stating that the chargesheet prepared against Kumar
in 1992 cannot be clubbed with another case on which trial was
already on.
A chargesheet in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case citing
sufficient evidence to proceed against Kumar was prepared in
1992 but was never brought before a judge to seek his
prosecution.
Delhi police had claimed that the two cases relating to
the incidents during the riots that took place following
assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were
clubbed on the legal opinion provided by the prosecution
branch.
The Prosecutor had said the police were not empowered to
club cases and it was the sole prerogative of the court to
decide such issues.
The chargesheet was prepared in the case based on FIR
number 67/87 at Nangloi police station here naming Kumar as an
accused on April 8, 1992, but it was kept in the police file
and never brought before the court, the prosecutor had
claimed.
The police took the plea that the FIR was clubbed with
another riots case in which the trial was already on and in
which Kumar was not accused.
An FIR was registered in 1991 with regard to the killing
of four persons in Nangloi here during the 1984 riots.
Kumar, along with five others, was mentioned as an
accused in the case but the police dropped the name of the
politician.
The case (FIR no 67/87) with regard to the killings of
five persons allegedly involving Kumar was clubbed with the
FIR (418/1991) with Nangloi police. In 1994, the police filed
the chargesheet in FIR no 418/1991 against five accused but
did not mention Kumar as an accused.
Now, Delhi police would have to file the chargesheet in a
court. This would be the third chargesheet against Kumar, the
former outer Delhi MP, as CBI had already filed two
chargesheets against him relating to riots cases this year.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 20:11