1984 Anti-Sikh Riots Case: Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty For Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar Convicted Of Killing Father And Son

The prosecution has urged the court to impose the death penalty on former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who has been convicted of the brutal killing of a father and son during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi's Saraswati Vihar, as reported by ANI.

Kumar was convicted of killing Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh on 1 November 1984, in an episode that continues to be one of the darker pages in India's history of communal violence.

Written submissions seeking capital punishment, based on judicial precedents like the Nirbhaya case, were filed by Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Manish Rawat.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja has fixed hearing of arguments on sentencing for 21 February.

The court instructed both the defence and the prosecution to file their written submissions before the next hearing. Senior advocate H S Phoolka, who represents the families of the victims, is also to file written submissions.

The defence counsel, nonetheless, could not show up in court because of a lawyers' strike and asked for more time to make their submissions.

Defendant Kumar's counsel, Anil Sharma, had earlier submitted that his client's name was not mentioned first and that the witness had only identified him 16 years after the incident.

In court, APP Manish Rawat stated that the case was of the "rarest of rare" nature, since the victims were targeted on the basis of their community alone. He also stated that the crime "shattered the entire fibre of trust and harmony between the communities" and adversely affected social cohesion.

Kumar, already serving a life sentence in another anti-Sikh riots case linked to the violence in Delhi Cantt, was convicted by the Rouse Avenue Court on 12 February.

The case was among 114 riot-related cases reopened following recommendations by the Justice G P Mathur Committee. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) later pursued the case, leading to Kumar’s conviction.

While testifying in court, the prosecution emphasized the state's failure on the part of law enforcement with Phoolka contending, "Police investigation was late and to save the accused."

He also emphasized the fact that violence was not unique but a series of a massive, organized massacre, which he called "a part of genocide."

Official statistics put the number of Sikhs killed in Delhi during the 1984 riots at approximately 2,700. Phoolka also quoted the Delhi High Court's judgment in the Delhi Cantt case, which referred to the riots as "a crime against humanity."

He contended that the intention behind this kind of violence was to attack minorities and compared it to genocide cases in the international context and the Geneva Convention.

The SIT has charged Kumar with instigating and taking a mob, which finally set the victims ablaze, looted and set their homes on fire, and caused grievous injuries to their family members.

Testimonies of witnesses up to 2016 reiterated the same, with one of the main witnesses affirming that she identified Kumar from a newspaper photo one and a half months later.

The court's verdict on the sentence is awaited.