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Sajjan Kumar: Milestone conviction in deadly anti-Sikh riots | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A senior Congress party politician has been jailed for life in what is being seen as the most important conviction so far over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. | |
Sajjan Kumar, who was an MP at the time, was found guilty of inciting crowds to kill Sikhs. | |
In a scathing verdict, the Delhi high court judges said the accused evaded justice due to "political patronage". | |
More than 3,000 Sikhs died in riots following the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. | |
They were angry at her decision to send the army into the Golden Temple - Sikhism's holiest shrine - to flush out militants earlier in the year. | |
The killing of Mrs Gandhi, who belonged to the Congress party, saw mobs attack and murder members of the Sikh community across the country. | |
For 34 years, high-profile politicians accused of involvement in the anti-Sikh riots had evaded justice - on Monday this changed with Sajjan Kumar's conviction. | |
Kumar, 73, had been previously acquitted by a lower court, but this verdict was challenged by the country's top investigative agency which said he had been involved in a conspiracy of "terrifying proportions" with the police during the riots. | |
Nirpreet Kaur, whose father was burnt alive by mobs before her eyes, wept as she thanked the court for delivering justice after 34 years. | |
"I thank the judge and the whole prosecution team who brought the case to its logical conclusion. Had this conviction come earlier, I would have not suffered so much trauma," Ms Kaur told BBC Punjabi's Sarbjit Dhaliwal. | |
Ms Kaur said she was happy that Kumar had received a life sentence because a "death penalty would have meant he would have died in a moment, but now he will suffer". | |
Kumar was convicted after several eyewitnesses testified against him for inciting mobs in Delhi's Sultanpuri area. | Kumar was convicted after several eyewitnesses testified against him for inciting mobs in Delhi's Sultanpuri area. |
One woman witness said she had seen him addressing a crowd, telling them that Sikhs had killed "his mother" - a reference to Mrs Gandhi. | One woman witness said she had seen him addressing a crowd, telling them that Sikhs had killed "his mother" - a reference to Mrs Gandhi. |
Delhi high court Judges S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel found Kumar guilty of "criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity and acts against communal harmony" and ordered him not to leave the city and surrender by 31 December. | |
"In the summer of 1947, many people were massacred during the Partition of India. Thirty seven years later, Delhi witnessed a similar tragedy... The accused enjoyed political patronage and escaped trial," the judges said. | |
Following the verdict, Sajjan Kumar, Delhi high court and #1984SikhGenocide were trending on Twitter in India with thousands of people tweeting about the case. |