Jan
20
CBI reopens cases against MP Sajjan Kumar
January 20, 2006 | Comments Off on CBI reopens cases against MP Sajjan Kumar
At the request of the Union Home Ministry, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved the trial court in New Delhi to reopen the cases against Congress MP Sajjan Kumar for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms. The CBI is also seeking the original documents of the cases, which had been closed without even filing the charge sheets.
Several statements by witnesses implicate Kumar in organizing the violence against Sikhs:
In one of the two FIRs in question, Joginder Singh, a resident of Sultanpuri in West Delhi, had alleged that Sajjan Kumar, the Outer Delhi MP, had on November 1, 1984 “brought a mob of ruffians and told them they had 72 hours’ freedom to kill Sikhs and no Sikh should escape”.
Joginder Singh had further related how his 32-year-old brother Surjeet Singh was “dragged out and burnt alive”. “I was not allowed to save my brother and was pushed away by the assailants,” he had further said in his affidavit.
In the second FIR filed by one Anek Kaur of the same area, she had said she saw Sajjan Kumar, accompanied by another Congress leader Jai Kishan, threatening people gheraoed by a rampaging mob that “all members of the Sikh community would be killed.”
Despite this evidence, the police never filed a charge sheet against Sajjan Kumar, and in 2002, he was acquitted in the last remaining case against him.
Three government-appointed committees (Jain-Banerjee, Poti-Rosha, and Jain-Aggarwal) have all recommended taking action against Sajjan Kumar for his role in the pogroms. In February 2005, the Nanvati Commission submitted its report to the Union Home Ministry; in it, the Commission recommended the re-investigation of Sajjan Kumar and other Congress leaders.
Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to take action against those idenified in the Nanavati report for re-examination, the government has so far demonstrated sloppiness in its prosecution of Kumar. For example, CBI counsel was late in filing its appeal against Kumar’s 2002 acquittal, and was so unprepared during a hearing that the Delhi High Court was forced to adjourn.
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