The Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of three accused in an anti-Sikh riots case of 1984 in the East Delhi area of Trilokpuri.
A Delhi court had in 1996 sentenced the three accused -- Ved Prakash, Om Prakash and Karamat -- to life imprisonment. Upholding that judgment, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Ajit Bharihoke said there was no need to interfere in it as there was no infirmity in it. The lower court had sentenced the three accused mainly on the basis of evidence by Vidyavati Devi, wife of the deceased, Thakur Singh.
The allegation of the Kalyanpuri police against the three convicts was that they had led a rioting mob that had dragged the victim out of his neighbour’s house where he had taken shelter on the preceding day and set him on fire. The mob had earlier attacked the house of the victim on November 1 but he along with his family was able to escape and took shelter in the house of a neighbour, Laxman Das. However, the mob also attacked the neighbour’s house the following day.
The mob fist set a three-wheeler of the victim on fire and then threw him inside it, the charge-sheet said.
The riots had broken out in the Capital following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
In another anti-Sikh riots case, however, the High Court acquitted an accused for lack of evidence.
In that case, three Sikhs were killed. There were a total of five accused but four of them had died during the trial and hearing of the appeal.
