Sikhs step up protests against Sajjan acquittal

Agencies/New Delhi

At least as 115 protesters were detained and later let off.

The protesters gathered outside the residence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sajjan Kumar.

“Over a thousand protesters marched towards Sonia Gandhi’s residence, breaking two barricades. But they were blocked by police. Similar scenes were witnessed at 24, Akbar Road (the Congress office),” a senior police officer said.

A traffic police officer said several roads in central Delhi had been blocked to prevent angry protesters from reaching the Congress office and the residence of Gandhi. Among the roads closed to traffic and pedestrians were Akbar Road, Motilal Nehru Road, Krishna Menon Marg, Mansingh Road, Maulana Azad Road and Janpath.

Police barricades, however, failed to deter protesters who stood as close as they could to the places they wished to reach, shouting slogans.

“The protest went on for about an hour. As many as 115 protesters were detained outside the Congress office. They were taken in police buses to the Tughlaq Road police station,” Deputy Commissioner of Police S B S Tyagi said.

On Wednesday protesters stopped Metro trains and blocked roads.

The Sikh groups are angry at the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar by a Delhi court on Tuesday in a case related to the killing of five people in the Delhi Cantonment area during violence against Sikhs following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

At least 3,000 Sikhs were killed in a two-day massacre following Gandhi’s assassination by her two Sikh bodyguards. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen politicians from the Congress Party inciting mobs to carry out revenge attacks.

Additional Sessions Judge J R Aryan said Kumar “deserves to be given benefit of doubt” because three key prosecution witnesses had not named him until more than two decades after the riots. These three key witnesses claimed to have seen Kumar inciting a mob to kill Sikhs in the Raj Nagar area of Delhi on November 1, 1984, which led to the murder of five Sikh men in the locality.

The judge said two witnesses, Jagdish Kaur, whose husband and son were killed in the Raj Nagar area, and Nipreet Kaur, whose father was killed, had not named Kumar in their statements recorded in 1985. He also described Jagdish Kaur’s testimony of Kumar provoking a mob to kill Sikhs on November 1, 1984, as “not acceptable and believable.”

Kaur and the third witness, Jagsher Singh, whose three brothers were killed, had only named Kumar for the first time in statements recorded in 2007, the judge said. The judge also said that Kumar had not been named in any police complaints concerning incidents on November 1 and 2, 1984, in Raj Nagar.

The defence counsel for Kumar had argued that he was not in the area during the murder of the five Sikh men, and that the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses were riddled with holes.

Meanwhile, a US-based Sikh rights group has announced a $1mn reward for those whose testimony and evidence may result in Kumar’s conviction.

Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) said it would hire top lawyers to prosecute the appeal against the acquittal of Kumar before the Delhi High Court.

The reward presented an “opportunity for those who witnessed the killings to come forward with testimony and evidence to help victims in seeking justice against those Congress leaders who organised violence against Sikhs,” SFJ legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said.

Since Kumar was acquitted on the basis of “benefit of doubt” because Jagdish Kaur’s testimony was not corroborated by any independent witness, SFJ will campaign to find additional witnesses relating to Kumar’s role, the group said.