The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to grant interim protection against arrest to former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in two separate 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases.
Justice A. K. Pathak dismissed the plea for relief when counsel for Sajjan Kumar, I. U. Khan, urged the Court to pass an interim order for protection against arrest till his anticipatory bail application was decided.
The Court was hearing his application for anticipatory bail along with those of the other accused in the two cases.
The arguments on these applications remained inconclusive. The Court will further hear Sajjan Kumar’s counsel on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Court issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation on two fresh petitions by two of the accused challenging their prosecution in one of the cases submitting that they could not be prosecuted twice for the same offence as they had already been tried and acquitted in the case by the trial court way back in 2002.
Counsel for Sajjan Kumar also put up this argument before Justice Pathak saying that he too had already been tried and acquitted in that case along with the other accused in 2002.
Mr. Khan argued that apprehension on the part of the prosecution that Sajjan Kumar would influence witnesses and tamper with evidence when released on bail was unfounded. He further submitted that Sajjan Kumar had always cooperated with the investigating agency and with the trial court in the past, and that is the reason why he was never arrested.
“They have been very kind to you and are still kind to you,’’ Justice Pathak observed.
A trial court had on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Sajjan Kumar and the other accused when they failed to appear before it on summons issued on February 1.
The trial court has asked the CBI to arrest the accused persons and produce them before it on or before February 23.
