Congress leader Sajjan Kumar should not have been granted anticipatory bail by a trial court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, the Delhi High Court was told by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for the SIT which is probing the charges against him, told Justice Anu Malhotra that witnesses were not coming forward as the Congress leader was not in custody.
Mr. Kumar was granted anticipatory bail by a trial court on December 21 last year in a case of killing of three Sikhs during the riots, which had occurred after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Mr. Jain argued before the High Court that the trial court had erred in granting relief to the former MP on grounds of lapse of time. He said the witnesses, their families and the kin of the victims of riots had fled to Punjab fearing for their lives and it was only now that they were coming forward.
‘Politically motivated’
He said that witnesses will be required to be confronted with Mr. Kumar and if he was out of custody, the witnesses will not come forward. He gave the example of one such person whose statement was recorded before a court in Chandigarh.
Denying that reopening of the case was politically motivated, Mr. Jain said that truth will remain as such even with the passage of time.
