Court rejects Sajjan Kumar plea in anti-Sikh riots case

The Delhi High Court also dismisses riot victim Sheela Kaur’s plea to frame conspiracy charge against the Congress leader and four others

A file photo of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar whose plea against a trial court order framing charges against him in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case was dismissed by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

Three months after his acquittal in an anti-Sikh riots case, Congress leader Sajjan Kumar faces trial in a similar case with the Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissing his plea to quash framing of charges against him by a trial court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case related to the killing of six persons in the Sultanpuri area in north-west Delhi.

Now the decks have been cleared for the lower court here to begin trial in the case.

Dismissing the petition, Justice Suresh Kait said: “The settled law is that the veracity of … statements [of witnesses] has to be examined at the stage of trial and not at the stage of framing of charge. Therefore, I find no illegality if the trial court has not considered the documents other than the documents filed by the investigating agency to support the charge sheet.’’

Seeking quashing of the lower court order, counsel for Mr. Kumar had argued that while framing the charges, the court had not taken into account the documents filed by him in support of his plea that no case was made out against him.

Besides Mr. Kumar, his co-accused Ved Prakash Pial alias Vedu Pradhan and Brahmanand Gupta also challenged the framing of charges against them in the case. The court dismissed their revision petitions also.

“No material”

Sheela Kaur, the complainant in the matter, filed a cross-appeal, seeking slapping of criminal conspiracy charge against Mr. Kumar and the other four accused in the case. The Court dismissed it as well.

``…no material is available on record to infer even [a] meeting of mind of the accused persons so as to draw inference of their having entered into criminal conspiracy to commit the offences complained of. Moreover, Mr. Phoolka [counsel for Kaur] could not point out any material from the charge sheet on the basis of which the petitioners could be charged for conspiracy. ,’’ Justice Kait said.

The trial court in July 2010 framed charges against Mr. Kumar, Brahmanand Gupta, Peru, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash in connection with the case in which six persons were killed in the Sultanpuri area in the riot which broke out in the wake of assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Besides charges of murder and rioting, the trial court also framed charges for the offence of spreading enmity between two communities.