The CBI on Monday questioned the “conduct” of Delhi Police while investigating a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case involving senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a court here alleging it had not recorded the statements of witnesses in a fair manner.
Resuming the final arguments before District Judge J R Aryan, CBI prosecutor and senior advocate R S Cheema said the Delhi police official, who had gone to record the statement of prosecution witness Jagdish Kaur, had told her that all the accused in other 1984 riots cases have been acquitted.
“The police official had gone to Ms. Jagdish Kaur’s house to record her statement but instead of doing so, he told her about the outcome of other 1984 riots cases.
“He told her that all the accused in those cases have been acquitted. What was the need of discussing the outcome of other cases with her. This showed the conduct and behaviour of the police during their investigation,” Mr. Cheema said while pointing out the “unfairness” on the part of Delhi Police.
Ms. Jagdish Kaur, a key prosecution witness in the case, had lost her husband, son and three brothers in the massacre.
Sajjan Kumar and five others are facing trial for allegedly instigating a mob to kill Sikhs in Delhi cantonment area in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The prosecutor said that the police had sent two summons to Ms. Jagdish Kaur and according to the police, her daughter and son had purportedly written on the said summons that she was not interested to come and give any evidence against anyone.
The prosecutor, however, said that this claim of the police was refuted by the witness who had said that neither her son nor her daughter had written anything on the summons.
The CBI’s arguments remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow.
The prosecutor also said that it was due to police’s faulty probe that the riots victims were yet to get justice and the cases were kept pending for so many years.
According to CBI, when the police had recorded Ms. Jadgish Kaur’s statement, she had named four accused including Sajjan Kumar.
Earlier, the CBI had argued that no eye witness was produced in the five other carnage cases by the police, which resulted in the acquittal of the accused.
It had said that only the police officials were examined as witnesses in those cases, which resulted into acquittal.
The prosecutor had told the court that initially the police had not made Sajjan Kumar an accused in the case and he was named in the case in 2005 after CBI took over the probe.
Sajjan Kumar and other five accused Kishan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal, Mahender Yadav, Balwan Khokkar and Captain Bhagmal are facing trial for allegedly instigating the mob to kill the Sikhs during the 1984 riots.
The case against Sajjan Kumar was registered in 2005 on a recommendation by Justice G T Nanavati Commission. The CBI had filed two charge sheets against him and the other accused in January 2010.
The trial court had in May, 2010, framed charges against Sajjan Kumar and five others under Sections 302 (murder), 395 (dacoity), 427 (mischief to cause damage to property), 153-A (promoting enmity between different communities) and other provisions of the IPC.
Sajjan Kumar is facing prosecution in three separate cases in which he has been accused of inciting a mob against the Sikh community during the riots.
News Source: The Hindu
