The Supreme Court on Monday (January 6, 2025) posted for July appeals filed by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and the party’s former councillor Balwan Khokhar after they were sentenced to imprisonment in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
A Bench headed by Justice J.K. Maheshwari said the petitioners would be at liberty to request the court to suspend their sentence if the hearing was further delayed.
In July 2024, the apex court had asked the CBI to respond to Mr. Khokhar’s plea seeking a reprieve.
Mr. Khokhar’s life sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2018, whereas it reversed Mr. Kumar’s acquittal by a trial court in 2013 in a case related to the killings of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar Part-I area in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, apart from the setting ablaze of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.
These cases stem from the violence committed against the Sikh community in the national capital following the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Published – January 06, 2025 11:04 pm IST