New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday reserved
its order on a plea of a co-accused of Congress leader
Sajjan Kumar seeking transfer of 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases
from a special court to a judge having local jurisdiction.
District and Sessions Judge GP Mittal heard the
arguments of counsel for CBI and Khushal Singh, the co-accused
of Kumar, in the matter and reserved his order.
During arguments in the matter, VK Malik, counsel for
Khushal, submitted that it was illegal to try an offence
before a court which does not have jurisdiction in the matter.
He contended that Delhi has been divided into nine
judicial districts and so the cases relating to killings of
the victims during the riots should be tried at the courts
having proper jurisdiction.
Malik submitted that since the cases in which CBI
filed the chargesheet related to the offence that took place
in Sultanpuri and Delhi Cantonment area, they should be tried
at Rohini and Dwarka courts respectively.
However, DP Singh, counsel for CBI, said that the
application of the accused has already been disposed of by a
special CBI judge at Karkardooma.
He also submitted that the file has been sent only for
administrative purposes for proper allocation of the cases.
The CBI, which claimed that the files related to two
cases were sent by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
(ACMM) to the special judge at Karkardooma, was put some tough
questions by the judge.
"Who gave power to the ACMM. Does the ACMM has the
power to send a file to a special court," the District Judge
said.
Appearing for the complainant, senior advocate H S
Phoolka submitted that the accused had already accepted the
jurisdiction of the Karkardooma court by filing anticipatory
bail petition before it.
Phoolka's submission led to a heated argument with the
counsel for the accused opposing his plea alleging that he did
not have right to speak in the matter to which Phoolka shot
back saying the matter related to public sentiments and
involved larger interest of the community.
A special CBI court at Karkardooma had on March 27
disallowed the plea of Khushal who had sought transfer of
cases by raising objection over its jurisdiction, but had sent
the case files to the district judge to seek proper allocation
for hearing.
On March 20, ACMM had declined to take on record an
application of Sajjan Kumar seeking certain documents related
to the chargesheet filed against him in the riot cases and
directed them to appear before the CBI court.
The CBI had filed two chargesheets on January 13 in
the riots cases registered on the recommendation of Justice G
T Nanavati Commission which had inquired into the sequence of
events leading to the riots in the aftermath of the
assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, April 01, 2010, 15:06