New Delhi, January 6
The Supreme Court will hear the petitions filed by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and former party councilor Balwan Khokhar against the sentences handed down in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases in July. A bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Arvind Kumar clarified that if the final hearing does not go as planned, the petitioners will be free to file an appeal in the court for suspension of their sentences. The apex court has summoned the records from the trial court, which will further be given to all the concerned parties.
The Supreme Court had sought a response from the CBI on Khokhar’s relief appeal in July 2024. The Delhi High Court had upheld Khokhar’s life sentence in 2018 while overturning the trial court’s 2013 acquittal of Kumar. Sajjan Kumar was accused of killing five Sikhs in Raj Nagar Part 1 area of South West Delhi’s Palam Colony on 1-2 November 1984 and setting fire to a Gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part 2. Khokhar had claimed in his petition that the jail authorities rejected his petition on 26 September 2024 saying that his release would disturb the peace and tranquility of the society. -News-Patiala
