A plea of the Delhi High Court Thursday disposed of the appeal seeking to overturn the bail granted to former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The decision followed after the court learned that Kumar had received a verdict in the case.
The matter was heard in the court by Justice Vikas Mahajan, who noted the recent developments and found that the petition had been rendered infructuous. “The petitioner, the Central government standing counsel for SIT, says that in the case, Kumar has been convicted and formally taken into custody during the pendency of the petition.” Thus, the court said this petition has become infructuous.
A trial court jury found Sajjan Kumar guilty of murdering two people in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar during the 1984 riots on February 12. His sentence has not been fixed by the trial court.
Former Congress MP Kumar is already serving a life sentence in another case that is linked to the anti-Sikh riots which erupted following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Kumar, whose bail was challenged by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has been charged with probing the 1984 riots cases, had challenged the bail order of the trial court on April 27, 2022. On July 4, 2022, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to Kumar and unanimously stayed the bail order passed on him in response.
Kumar’s latest conviction and his being now in judicial custody rendered the SIT’s plea superfluous, and the High Court had no option but to formally reject it. More broadly, the case is part of the legal battle over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in which thousands of Sikhs were killed in planned violence in India.
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