Sajjan Kumar today, eventually Gandhi family: Harsimrat Kaur on verdict in 1984 riots

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New Delhi: Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday welcomed the Delhi High Court's verdict which sentenced Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Recounting the personal horror that she experienced at the time, Badal said that the High Court's decision was just the start and that the Gandhi family too would soon have to face the law.

The High Court on Monday reversed a lower court order, which had acquitted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting up an SIT to probe the massacre. "Today's is a historic judgement. Wheels of justice have finally moved. It is Sajjan Kumar today, it will be Jagdish Tytler tomorrow then Kamal Nath and eventually the Gandhi family," she said.

Remembering the unfortunate riots with a certain degree of horror, Badal said that she still shudders when the thoughts of the riots come back to her. "We were trying to protect ourselves and were saved by the almighty. Thousands of innocents were brutally killed before their families. Even today when I think of all that happened, it gives me goosebumps. Children were crying, they could not utter a word. I still remember it today," she said.

While Badal trained her guns on the Gandhi family as well, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh - while welcoming Monday's verdict - said that the Gandhis had nothing to do with the riots.

Leaders from BJP, AAP and several other political parties too welcomed Monday's verdict.

Earlier in the day, the court observed that a communal frenzy was unleashed in the country after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then PM of India, on October 31 of 1984. For four days all over Delhi, 2,733 Sikhs were brutally murdered, their houses were destroyed. In the rest of the country too thousands of Sikhs were killed, the court noted. "A majority of the perpetrators of these horrific mass crimes enjoyed political patronage and were aided by an indifferent law enforcement agency. The criminals escaped prosecution and punishment for over two decades," the court said.

The case against Sajjan Kumar and others was registered in 2005 on a recommendation by the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission.

(With IANS inputs)