The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on 1984 anti-Sikh riots on Thursday sought death penalty for two persons convicted by a court here, saying that it was part of a “genocide” against members of a particular community and fell under the rarest of rare category of cases warranting the capital punishment.
Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Pandey reserved for November 20, the order on the quantum of punishment to be awarded to Naresh Sherawat and Yashpal Singh for killing Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh in Mahipalpur area of South Delhi during the riots.
It was the first conviction in the cases, reopened by the SIT, set up in 2015. The Delhi police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. However, a SIT on the riots reopened it.
The SIT demand was opposed by the counsel appearing for the convicts who sought life imprisonment for his clients, the minimum for the offence of murder.
During the proceedings, the public prosecutor for SIT, Surinder Mohit Singh, said that it was "brutal murder of two innocent young persons aged around 25 each. It was a planned murder since the accused were carrying kerosene oil, sticks etc." It was not the only incident in Delhi and around 3,000 people were killed, he added.
"People from only one community were targeted. It was a genocide. The incidents had an international ramification and it took almost 34 years to get justice. A signal should go to the society to deter them from committing such horrible crimes. This is the rarest of rare case which calls for death penalty," Singh said.
However, the demand was opposed by advocate O P Sharma, appearing for the convicts, who said that the attack was not deliberate or planned but a sudden flare up.
"The Prime Minister of the country was shot dead by her own bodyguards, belonging to a particular community. What could be more wrong than that? She was warned and suggested to change her guards. Still she kept them.
But she was betrayed and brutally killed. The present case was a sudden flare up. There was no pre-planning," the defence counsel said.
However, his submission was opposed by senior advocate H S Phoolka, who appeared for the victims."Every Sikh condemned the act of the assassination of the Prime Minister. It was tragic. But does that mean that Sikhs be killed? Does that give licence to kill?
"Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was killed by Nathuram Godse. But did anything of that sort happen against anyone? The accused were leading the mob. The whole world is watching that how we treat such cases," Phoolka said.
Later, as the convicts were being taken to the lock up inside the Patiala House Courts premises after the proceedings, BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa slapped one of the convicts-Yashpal Singh. Slogans were also raised against both the convicts. However, the police separated Sirsa, his supporters and the convicts. The case was lodged on a complaint filed by Santokh Singh, a brother of Hardev Singh.
The Delhi police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. However, an SIT formed in connection with the riots reopened the case. The court on Wednesday had convicted the two accused-the first conviction in the cases reopened by the SIT.
The court held both the accused guilty under various sections including 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 395 (dacoity) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the IPC.
Of the 650 cases registered in connection with anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, 267 were closed as untraced by the Delhi Police. Of these 267 cases, five were later taken up by the CBI. The SIT also scrutinised the records of 18 cancelled cases.
The SIT found 60 cases appropriate for further investigation. It filed "untraced report" in 52 cases in the last one-and-a-half years.
Out of the eight cases being investigated, chargesheets have been filed in five and three, in which senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar is an accused, are pending investigation.
