New Delhi: A Delhi court today reserved its
order on the application of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar
seeking certain documents relating to two 1984 anti-Sikh riots
cases.
Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta, after hearing the
arguments on behalf of Kumar and the CBI, said the court would
pronounce its order on the application on April 22.
Kumar and other accused, in their plea, had sought
records relating to the cases pertaining to riots at
Sultanpuri and Delhi Cantt areas in 1984.
- Defence lawyer I U Khan argued that there has been a
complete violation of the provisions of the CrPC by the CBI by
suppressing facts and not providing the documents.
"It should be the anxiety of the court as to what
happened in all these 25 years since the riots took place. The
CBI should come forward with all relevant records including
the statement of witnesses, whom it proposes to examine during
the trial," he said.
The CBI`s act was "unparallelled" in history as it was
denying the accused the documents because it would certainly
create problem for the prosecuting agency, he claimed.
Khan claimed that accused had already been acquitted by
the courts in earlier trial and CBI wanted to defeat the
criminal justice system by reopening the cases.
Strongly opposing Kumar`s arguments, CBI counsel D P
Singh alleged that the former outer Delhi MP and others were
trying to confuse the court as there were a number of trials
with regard to the riots and Kumar had never faced criminal
proceedings in the matter.
"Kumar never faced trial with regard to the chargesheets
filed against him. He had delivered provocative speeches at
different places. It was a deliberate act done by him which
resulted in massacre," Singh alleged.
CBI counsel also sought to reject Kumar`s plea to rely on
the anticipatory bail order delivered in favour of him by the
Delhi High Court saying it could not be used to advance his
arguments because the bail was discretion of the court and was
not an appreciation of the evidence in the case.
During the over two-hour-long arguments, counsel for
Kumar`s co-accused submitted that CBI`s recent chargesheets
against them were "supplementary in nature" as Delhi police
had already probed the incidents relating to the killings in
the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
CBI had filed incomplete chargesheets without attaching
the statement of witnesses which was "highly condemnable",
they alleged.
Bureau Report
