A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to inciting violence in Janakpuri in the national capital during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
Kumar, however, will remain in jail as he has been sentenced to life imprisonment by Delhi High Court in connection with the murder of five people in Delhi's Palam Colony on November 1 and 2, 1984.
Special judge Dig Vinay Singh underlined that though the court understood the trauma suffered by the victims and their families, its decision had to be “sans emotions”.
“The finding of guilt of the accused in this case must be solely judged based on the evidence led in the present matter. Unfortunately, most of the witnesses examined by the prosecution in this case are hearsay, and/ or those witnesses who failed to name the accused for three long decades,” the judge said.
He said relying on the identification of the accused by such witnesses “would be risky and may lead to a travesty”. The judge said there was no reliable evidence that Kumar was present at the crime scene or that he was seen there by anyone. There was also no evidence of instigating any riotous mob or of conspiracy regarding the alleged incident, he added.
Stampede PIL nixed
The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a PIL filed by former Rajya Sabha member Tumbalam Gooty Venkatesh from Andhra Pradesh seeking directions to the Election Commission and the Union government to formulate a standard operating procedure for political and other rallies to prevent stampedes.
The PIL comes in the wake of the recent stampedes in Tamil Nadu’s Karur during actor-turned-politician Vijay’s rally and in Bengaluru during last year’s IPL victory celebrations by the RCB team.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi declined to pass any directions on the ground that there can be no way courts can enforce such SoPs since it is difficult to fathom who should be allowed to attend such rallies.