Gandhi Family Legacy Will Continue to Pay For Sins of 1984 Riots: Arun Jaitley

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Congress party and said that the Gandhi family legacy will continue to pay for the sins of 1984 riots. His reaction came after the Delhi High Court held Sajjan Kumar and five others guilty in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case and sentenced the Congress leader to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life.

Taking it to the micro-blogging site, Twitter, Jaitley wrote, “Sajjan Kumar’s conviction by the Delhi High Court is a delayed vindication of Justice. The Congress and the Gandhi family legacy will continue to pay for the sins of the 1984 riots.”

Earlier in the day, a bench of Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel overturned a trial court judgement that had acquitted the Congress leader. “In the summer of 1947, during partition, this country witnessed horrific mass crimes where several lakhs of civilians, including Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus were massacred,” the bench had said.

“Thirty-seven years later, the country again witnessed to another enormous human tragedy. Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on the morning of October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, a communal frenzy was unleashed.”

The court convicted the Congress leader under various counts of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including murder, criminal conspiracy, wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot, mischief by fire or



explosive substance with intent to destroy the house and injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class.

The CBI had filed an appeal challenging the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar and said that the trial court “erred in acquitting Sajjan Kumar as it was he who had instigated the mob during the riots”.

In October, the High Court had reserved its order on the pleas challenging that trial court judgement on Sajjan Kumar but convicted the other five accused in the case related to the killing of five people in Delhi Cantonment area following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The HC Division Bench upheld the trial court April 30, 2013, judgement convicting five other accused — former councillor Balwan Khokhar, former legislator Mahender Yadav, Krishan Khokar, Girdhari Lal and Retired Captain Bhagmal — for their involvement in the case.

The five convicts have also filed appeals against their conviction.

Sajjan Kumar and five others were tried in the case involving the killing of five Sikhs — Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh, who were members of the same family — by a mob in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar area following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The case against Sajjan Kumar and others was registered in 2005 on a recommendation by the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission.