Sajjan Kumar discharged of murder charge, faces rioting, arson case

A Delhi court on Wednesday discharged former Congress Member of Parliament Sajjan Kumar of murder charges in a case related to the anti-Sikh riots in which two people were killed outside the party office in Uttam Nagar on November 2, 1984.

The court, however, ordered framing of charges against Kumar for abetment to murder, rioting, arson, promoting enmity between different groups, defiling place of worship, hurt, dacoity, etc in a second riots case that took place on November 1.

In the first case, a mob consisting of hundreds of people armed with sticks, iron rods, bricks and stones gathered near a gurdwara in Gulab Bagh in the national capital’s Nawada area on November 1, 1984 at 11 am.

“Accused Sajjan Kumar was a part of the said mob and common object of the said mob was to put the gurdwara on fire and to burn and loot the articles lying therein, and also to burn and destroy the houses of Sikhs situated in the said locality,” the court said.

The court also said that Kumar was the “principal abettor” and was present at the crime scene on November 1, 1984.

In the second case on November 2, 1984, two men-- Sohan Singh and Avtar Singh-- were killed and several others left injured outside the Congress party office in Uttam Nagar.

Special judge MK Nagpal, in his order on Wednesday, said, “As far as the offences committed during the incident dated 2.11.1984 which relate to the murder of Sohan Singh and Avtar Singh at the hands of members of the mob ......and also the injuries suffered by complainant Harvinder Singh in the said incident, are concerned, the accused (Kumar) is being discharged for the offences under section 302, and 325 respectively.”

The two cases were reported at two different police stations and two separate FIRs were filed.

The matter was investigated by an SIT (Special Investigation Team) and a consolidated charge sheet for both the cases pertaining to the incidents that occurred in the areas of Gulab Bagh, Nawada, and Uttam Nagar, was filed before the court in July 2022.

Additional public prosecutors Manish Rawat and Gaurav Singh submitted before the court that the two FIRs were clubbed as the incidents were committed in continuation as part of the same transaction by the same people, but the incident took place in the jurisdiction of two different police stations.

The charges were read over to Kumar who refused to plead guilty.

The court will now commence trial in the case from September 21.

The Union ministry of home affairs in 2014 formed a committee comprising of justices GP Mathur and JP Agrawal in connection with the riots that left nearly 3,000 Sikhs dead in violence that followed the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on October 31, 1984.

On the orders by the committee, the SIT was constituted on July 2015 to probe the riots-related cases.

In the charge sheet, the SIT said that Kumar along with other accused persons formed an unlawful assembly and with the common object to commit acts including rioting, arson, murder, and destruction of properties belonging to the Sikhs.

It was also submitted before the court that Kumar was granted anticipatory bail in the matter on December 21, 2016. However, since he was serving life imprisonment in Tihar jail in connection with a different riots case, he was formally arrested in the present case from the jail.