Victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots get justice after 34 yrs

| | NEW DELHI
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Victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots get justice after 34 yrs

Tuesday, 18 December 2018 | SHEKHAR SINGH/GAYATHRI MANI | NEW DELHI

The judge, who sentenced Congress leader Sajjan Kumar on Monday to life imprisonment for his role in the 1984 mass killing of Sikhs in Delhi in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, burst into tears while pronouncing the verdict. He was not alone, as the counsels of the victims and the relatives  and family members of the murdered sikhs and from ‘Sikh community’ started crying in the courtroom. 

Among those present in the court room was Jagdish Kaur (77), an eyewitness of 1984- riots, who can now barely walk, lost her husband, elder son and three cousins in the carnage that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. Talking to The Pioneer Kaur said,  “It took 34 years to get justice but till each and every culprit of riots is not punished my fight will continue”

“This verdict has brought some relief. No one should face the kind of injustice we have faced all these years,” said Kaur. Jagdish Kaur used to stay in Tilak Nagar with her family when the riots against ‘Sikh Community’ broke in national Capital but now she has shifted to Amritsar.

Mohali-based Nirpreet Kaur, another witness against Sajjan Kumar, said this verdict has brought us a bit of relief. “We are not fully satisfied that we have got justice. I wish we had got this justice before and it is too late. My father was brought out on pretext of a compromise and burnt alive. He tried to save himself thrice but they did not spare him,” she said.

Recounting her days of fight against accused she said that she was even threatened with slapping of TADA cases against her but she never gave up. “False cases were filed against me and I had spent nine years  languishing in different jails but I continued my fight despite the odds stacked against me,” she said.

The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) also expressed unhappiness and said their battle will continue till the Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler gets Capital punishment and their promoters and main conspirator Gandhi family is put behind bars.

Former president Manjit Singh GK and General Secretary of DSGMC said, “We welcome the verdict of the court which has come 34 years are the worst ever genocide  was carried out in the streets of Delhi and other cities of the country, but the battle will continue till Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler are hanged to death.”

 “Kamal Nath and another leader of the Congress who is accused in instigating mob to kill two Sikhs before Gurudwara Rakabganj Sahib will also be not spared at any cost. He said that his trial and subsequent sentence will be ensured” GK added.

DSGMC further said that the court has now realised that it is too late for delivering justice and sikh community has been suffering all these years. “Our target is to get Gandhi family who is main conspirator in this genocide, booked and then sentenced to jail.

The Indian Congress was the ruling during the riot took place and also it is one of main reason for this incident and deaths of thousands of people. The party took used their power to hurt hundreds of Sikh people and justice should be given to the victims,” said Sirsa.

 “We demand that an amendment should be made in the law book and word ‘genocide’ should be added in it, so that the crime which Sajjan Kumar and other accused had committed should be judged accordingly,” claimed Sirsa and Avtar Singh Hit, President of Takht Patna Sahib Management Committee

“So glad there is some justice, some sense of hope that one can latch on to in this scenario of lawlessness. Even though it may be a political move, it was much awaited since 34 years. Truth and justice should rise above the anarchy,” said Teenaa Kaur Pasricha, who made a documentary “1984- When the sun didn’t rise” on riots victims .    

As many as 2,800 Sikhs were killed in the violence, 2,100 of whom hailed from Delhi in 1984. 

Delhi’s Karkardooma court on April 30, 2013, convicted five persons for these killings, awarding the life sentence to former Congress MLA Mahendra Yadav and councillor Balwan Khokar and three-year imprisonment to three others for rioting.

Then Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who allegedly led the murderous mobs, was let off, prompting Jagdish Kaur and a second survivor, Jagsher Singh, along with the CBI to appeal the acquittal in the Delhi High Court.

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