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Supreme Court set to hear Sajjan Kumar out, issues notice to CBI

Serving life sentence in a case relating to the death of five Sikhs in Delhi during anti-Sikh riots in November, 1984, Kumar cited his advanced age of 73 years as a ground to claim bail.

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The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's appeal challenging his conviction in the 1984 riots cases, and posted bail plea for consideration after six weeks.

Serving life sentence in a case relating to the death of five Sikhs in Delhi during anti-Sikh riots in November, 1984, Kumar cited his advanced age of 73 years as a ground to claim bail. He further submitted that soon after the Delhi High Court on December 17 reversed his acquittal by the trial court and directed him to surrender by December 31, he had obeyed the order and asked the court to treat his pleas leniently.

The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Ashok Bhushan and SK Kaul agreed to hear Kumar's appeal and bail petition and issued a notice in this regard to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the agency which probed the case against him. The case involving Kumar occurred in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area in southwest Delhi.

The trigger for the violence was the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards. For almost three decades, the victims contested the case before the trial court and High Court. While the trial court in 2010 found that charges were not made, the Delhi HC castigated the Delhi Police for conducting a shoddy probe and corroborated evidence using testimony by witnesses in the case.

Kumar was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and abetment in commission of crimes of murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of communal harmony as well as defiling and destroying a gurudwara. Five others were convicted with him.       

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