1984 anti-Sikh violence: Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar convicted for killing father-son duo

A Delhi court on Wednesday convicted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar for killing two men during the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, Bar and Bench reported.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Court passed the order and said that arguments on the quantum of sentence will take place on February 18, the Hindustan Times reported.

Large-scale riots broke out in Delhi on October 31, 1984, following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, who was then the prime minister, by her Sikh bodyguards. Mobs, allegedly helped by some Congress leaders, had attacked Sikhs and torched their homes. Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone.

In the case related to Kumar’s conviction, the family members of those who died – Jaswant Singh and his son Tarun Deep Singh – had alleged that a mob led by him burnt the two men alive on November 1, 1984 in the Saraswati Vihar area.

They also alleged that Kumar, who was then the Outer Congress MP for Outer Delhi, “instigated and abetted the unruly mob” which set their house on fire.

The police had filed the first information report in the case on September 9, 1985. In 1994, the case was closed after the court held that evidence collected was not sufficient to initiate prosecution against any person.

It was then reopened in 2015 by a three-member…

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