NEW DELHI, India—On April 15, the Supreme Court of India said that the bail plea of Sajjan Kumar would be taken up for hearing during the first week of August this year. In this way, there is no provision left for Sajjan Kumar’s release till August.
During the hearing on Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, told the apex court that Kumar is facing trial in another 1984 Sikh genocide case at the Patiala House district court. Mehta said recording of evidence was going on in the case and out of 35 prosecution witnesses seven had been examined till date.
The counsel representing Kumar said the former Congress leader was granted anticipatory bail by the high court in the case in which trial is going on and it was affirmed by the apex court also.
“This will have to be heard fully,” the bench said.
When Kumar’s counsel said that hearing on the bail plea would not take much time, Mehta said, “See the gruesome nature of offence. It was genocide.”
The bench said it would hear the matter in the first week of August.
It may be recalled here that Sajjan Kumar was imprisoned for life by the Delhi High Court on December 17 in a case pertaining to brutal killing of five members of a Sikh family in the Raj Nagar of Delhi’s cantonment area on November 1, 1984. He had challenged the Delhi High Court’s verdict of convicting him till death on December 23 last year. Later, Sajjan Kumar had to surrender before a Delhi trial court on December 31 last year to serve life sentence awarded to him by the Delhi High Court as his plea couldn’t be taken up for hearing by the Supreme Court of India.
