New Delhi: A Delhi court is likely to
pronounce tomorrow its order on CBI's plea to frame charges of
murder and rioting against senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar
in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
Whether Kumar would walk free or face trial in the case
would be decided by Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta who
had reserved the order on May four.
CBI had accused Kumar of provoking the people against the
members of a particular community during the carnage that
followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi on October 31, 1984, leading to the killings of five
persons in Delhi Cantonment area.
Kumar, on the other hand, had claimed the accounts of CBI
witnesses were not reliable as they had changed their versions
a number of times.
"There are contradictions between different statements
and affidavits given by witness Jagdish Kaur. She did not name
Sajjan Kumar either in her first statement before police on
November 3, 1984, or before Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission
and Jain-Banerjee committee that inquired into the riots," he
had claimed.
The former Outer Delhi MP had also contended that the
case against him could not stand as CBI re-registered it even
though a Delhi court had given him a clean chit, accepting
a cancellation report filed by Delhi Police.
The probe agency, however, had also sought framing of
charges against Kumar for being involved in sedition saying he
had incited people belonging to one community against another.
Besides Kumar, other accused in the case are Balwan
Khokhar, Krishan Khokhar, Mahender Yadav, Captain Bhagmal and
Girdhari Lal.
CBI had filed two chargesheets against Kumar and others
on January 13 in the riots cases registered in 2005 on the
recommendation of Justice G T Nanavati Commission which
inquired into the sequence of events leading to the riots.
PTI
First Published: Friday, May 14, 2010, 21:15