Conspiracy to acquit accused in 1984 riots: J&K Sikh council

Protesting against the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, the Jammu and Kashmir Sikh Council alleged that the Centre was employing a different yardstick when it came to minority communities.

Jammu: Registering a strong protest against the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, the Jammu and Kashmir Sikh Council on Sunday alleged that the Centre was employing a different yardstick when it came to minority communities.

Protesters, led by the council`s president Harmohinder Singh, raised slogans and burnt effigies of the Union government, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Kumar. A Delhi court on April 30 acquitted Kumar in a riots case in which he was accused of murder and of instigating a riotous mob that killed five Sikhs in Delhi`s cantonment area. The acquittal has led to protests from the Sikh community, who have demanded that the case be reopened and action be taken against him and others guilty in the riots. "The government has a different attitude towards the minorities of the country ... They hanged Afzal Guru on the basis of circumstantial evidence and are preparing to hang Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar without any significant evidence, while acquitting Kumar, against whom there is an eyewitness," he alleged. "This is discrimination against minorities. Why use a different yardstick when it comes to minorities," Harmohinder asked. Bhullar is facing the death sentence over a 1993 car bomb blast in Delhi, which killed nine persons. The Supreme Court last month rejected his petition for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment. Harmohinder appealed to non-Congress parties to support the cause of minorities alleging that "nobody will be able to get justice from the corrupt government". PTI