New Delhi, Nov 25: The CBI today submitted before the Delhi High Court that senior Delhi Congress leader and former MP Sajjan Kumar and nine others were wrongly acquitted in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which he had allegedly led a mob that killed and looted Sikhs in outer Delhi area. "The trial court has erred in acquitting the accused as it considered the statements of prosecution witnesses before various inquiry commissions," Additional Solicitor General K K Sud submitted before a bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice M A Khan on behalf of CBI.

Sud cited the supreme court's ruling on admissibility of statements made before Thakkar Commission - that probed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi- and said such statements were not admissible in trial.

The commission of inquiry act prohibits the use of statements made before it in any other proceeding, Sud said and stressed that the scope of a commission's inquiry is restricted to its terms of reference and hence a statement by a witness before it may not be relevant for a criminal trial. CBI had challenged these acquittals on July 11 and the high court has already summoned trial court records. The case will be taken up for further hearing on December 16 along with the appeals filed by 8 riot victims and the Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) against the acquittals.
Additional sessions judge Manju Goel had on December 23 last acquitted Kumar in the case on the ground that CBI failed to prove charges that he actually led the mob which killed about 50 Sikhs in an outer Delhi area following assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
Bureau Report