Court reserves order on framing of charges against Sajjan Kumar

June 06, 2010 12:58 pm | Updated 12:58 pm IST - New Delhi:

A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order till July 1 on framing of charges against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and others in connection with the killing of six persons during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

After hearing the arguments from the CBI and the accused, Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta said the court would pronounce its order on July 1.

The arguments in the case were wrapped up with the CBI seeking prosecution of the former Outer Delhi MP and four others for the murder, rioting and other offences under the Indian Penal Code and the defence counsel requesting discharge of the accused claiming insufficient evidence.

During over two hours of arguments, CBI counsel D. P. Singh referred to statements by different witnesses including Bhagwani Bai and Chand Kaur to claim that they had stood by their affidavits submitted before the Jain Banerjee Committee, specifying the role of the accused in the riots.

He tried to rebut the plea of counsel for the accused that the cases in which the CBI was seeking their prosecution had already been decided, saying that the murder charges had earlier never been pressed against them.

Mr. Singh's contention was opposed by Sajjan Kumar's counsel I. U. Khan and A. K. Sharma who submitted that a total of 60 people were killed in Sultanpuri during the riots that followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, but the CBI had named the Congress leader only with regard to six deaths.

In his submission, CBI's Special Prosecutor Y. K. Saxena said the accused could not refer to alleged contradictions in statements of witnesses at the stage of framing of charges as the option was available to them during the trial only.

Senior counsel H. S. Phoolka, arguing on behalf of the victims, claimed that Sajjan Kumar had never been earlier tried for criminal conspiracy with regard to killings in the riots as the Delhi Police had filed closure report in different cases.

The CBI is seeking prosecution of Sajjan Kumar and Brahmanand Gupta, Peru, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash for the murder of six persons in Sultanpuri area of North-West Delhi in the riots that took place in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination. If the court finds prima facie evidence against the accused, it would order framing of charges on July 1 thereby initiating the trial in the case and if it finds the evidence insufficient, it can discharge the accused.

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