New Delhi: The prosecution in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case on Tuesday sought the death penalty for former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who has been convicted of murdering a father-son duo in the national capital.Kumar was convicted in a case of killing a father-son duo, Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh, on November 1, 1984, in the Saraswati Vihar area. Additional public prosecutor Manish Rawat filed written submissions and pressed for the death penalty in view of the guidelines in the Nirbhaya and other cases.Special judge Kaveri Baweja has listed the matter for hearing arguments on the sentence on February 21. The court asked the counsel for victims and accused to file their written submissions before the next date.Senior counsel H.S. Phoolka is also going to file his written submissions on behalf of the riot victims. The defence counsel, meanwhile, could not appear due to the lawyers’ strike and sought time to make his submissions.Mr Rawat submitted that this case was the rarest of rare cases. In this case, people from the Sikh community were targeted without any provocation. It was also submitted that the incident broke the “entire fibre of trust and harmony among the communities”, thereby severely affecting the knitting and assimilation of different religious and social groups.The Rouse Avenue court on February 12 convicted the Congress leader in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Kumar is serving a life sentence in another anti-Sikh riots case in Delhi Cantonment. On January 31, the court had reserved the order after hearing additional submissions by Mr Rawat.Defending the former Congress leader, advocate Anil Sharma had submitted that Kumar’s name was not there from the beginning, the law of foreign land is not applicable in this case and there was a delay of 16 years in naming the Congress leader by the witness. It was also submitted that a case in which Kumar was convicted by the Delhi high court is pending appeal before the Supreme Court.Mr Sharma had also referred to the case cited by Mr Phoolka, submitting that the law of the land will prevail even in the extraordinary situation and not the international law. Mr Rawat, in rebuttal, had submitted that the accused was not known to the victim. When she became aware of Kumar, she named him in her statement.Earlier, Mr Phoolka had argued that the police investigations were manipulated in the Sikh riot cases. “Police investigation was tardy and to save the accused,” read the submission. It was argued that during riots the situation was extraordinary. Therefore, these cases have to be dealt with in this context.During the arguments, Mr Phoolka referred to the judgement of the Delhi High Court and submitted that it is not an isolated case and was a part of genocide.Mr Phoolka had referred to the high court judgement in the 1984 Delhi Cantonment case, wherein the court called the riots a “crime against humanity”. It was also said that the objective of genocide is always targeting of minorities. “There is a delay. The Supreme Court took it seriously that there was a delay and an SIT was constituted,” Mr Phoolka argued.On November 1, 2023, the trial court had recorded the statement of Kumar, in which he denied all the charges levelled against him. Initially an FIR was registered in the Punjabi Bagh police station. Later on, this case was investigated by the Special Investigation Team constituted on the recommendation of the Justice G.P. Mathur committee and filed a chargesheet.The committee had recommended the reopening of 114 cases. This case was one of them. On December 16, 2021, the court had framed charges against Kumar for the commission of the offences punishable under Section 147/148/149 IPC as well as the offences punishable under Section 302/308/323/395/397/427/436/440 read with Section 149 IPC.According to a report of the Nanavati Commission, constituted to probe the violence and its aftermath, there were 587 FIRs filed in Delhi in relation to the riots that saw the killings of 2,733 people. Of the total, about 240 FIRs were closed by the police as “untraced” and 250 cases resulted in acquittal. Only 28 cases of 587 FIRs resulted in convictions, in which about 400 persons were convicted. About 50 were convicted for murder, including Kumar.Kumar, an influential Congress leader and an MP at the time, was accused in a case over the killings of five persons in Delhi’s Palam Colony on November 1 and 2 1984. He was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in the case and his appeal challenging the punishment is pending before the Supreme Court.
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