New Delhi—One of the long awaited and hard fought for trials against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide is nearing conclusion. While many speculate the trial may amount to a slap on the hand for Sajjan Kumar, it is a step forward in the demands for justice that Sikhs have raised in the ensuing decades.
For the end of the trial, the New Delhi city court has made an unusual decision to hold a two-minute silence for Sikh genocide victims. District judge J.R. Aryan on Monday said that a two-minute silence would be observed at the start of daily proceedings while the court hears the final arguments from both parties in the case.
“Hundreds of murders that took place during the riots were never investigated or tried. Before the hearing resumes in the case, maintain silence for two minutes. The description of the incidents given by the witnesses itself show how painful it was for them,” the judge said.
CBI prosecutor and senior advocate R.S. Cheema continued to present his final arguments in the case in which six Sikhs were killed in the Delhi Cantonment area in the targetted and planned genocidal riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Sajjan Kumar and five others are accused of having incited mobs to attack, rape, loot from, assault, murder and burn alive Sikhs. Cheema argued that the Delhi Police had fabricated and destroyed case records that could have served as evidence due to the planning at high levels of government. Earlier, he had told the court that the police had kept their eyes closed to the violence against Sikhs, registering only five cases despite receiving more than 150 complaints during the November genocide. Countless others are reported to be too scared to step forward while others have no family left to file complaints as they were all killed together.
Cheema pointed to police records regarding a prosecution witness named Jagdish Kaur. The records show Kaur was examined by the police in 1985 and 1992 and she apparently refused to identify the accused as being on the scene. But Kaur insisted that she had not been examined by the police at the time, a claim the CBI’s probe backed up, Cheema said.
“Delhi Police fabricated [records] and Jagdish Kaur had not deposed before them in 1985 and 1992. The two statements were wrong,” Cheema said. He added that the CBI probe revealed Kaur had recorded a statement before the police in 1984 naming Sajjan Kumar, but this deposition had been destroyed by corrupt officials.
Cheema also read statements from many prosecution witnesses who had testified over the course of the trial.
