Rebutting the final arguments made by Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and his fellow accused persons in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which they are facing trial, the CBI on Thursday told a Sessions court here that complainant Jagdish Kaur was an eyewitness to the riots and the killings of her husband and son and that her statement to the court was “completely trustworthy”.
Special Public Prosecutor R.S. Cheema told District Judge J.R. Aryan that Ms. Kaur had seen her husband and son being killed and had returned after initially fleeing to cremate their bodies and that she had neither “improved her statement or exaggerated the facts in the court”. Ms. Kaur also lost three brothers during the riots.
“She is a person of extraordinary courage and memory who is doing everything to get justice. She is a witness of truth and has not changed her stand,” Mr. Cheema said.
The CBI prosecutor claimed that Ms. Kaur had allegedly seen Balwan Khokhar killing her husband and her son and during the second rioting incident she had allegedly seen Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal. “She has not said the names of Kishan Khokhar and Mahender Yadav (two other accused) anywhere. This shows her truthfulness,” Mr. Cheema said.
Credibility
During their final arguments, the defence had sought to question the credibility of the witness. Mr. Cheema also claimed that there was “overwhelming evidence” that Ms. Kaur had made a complaint and recorded her statement in the case on November 3, 1984, but the disappearance of this statement from the records showed the “influence” wielded by the accused persons and the “callousness” of the Delhi Police probe.
Meanwhile, Jagdish Kaur and another witness Nirpreet Kaur, moved an application through their lawyer H. S. Phoolka seeking permission to bring on court record two news articles from November 8, 1984, and November 25, 1984, that purportedly has mention about Sajjan Kumar.
The first article was titled “No action against erring Cong-I men” which purportedly says that opposition leaders had met then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and apprised him of specific cases of involvement of Congress(I) leaders in the violence.
The second article is purportedly titled “Shastri, Sajjan among four dropped” and alleges that their names were dropped from the list of candidates because of criticism of their alleged role in the riots.
The court will hear arguments on this application on Monday. Mr. Cheema is expected to take up rebuttal of defence arguments against Nirpreet Kaur’s testimony on Friday.
