Amritsar
( Justice News)
Punjab BJP spokesperson and former President of the Sikh Students Federation, Prof. Sarchand Singh Khiala, has expressed deep shock and strong resentment over the decision of Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court granting relief to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in cases related to the killings in Vikaspuri and Janakpuri during the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom.
Prof. Khiala stated that the verdict is a grave injustice to the victim families who have been waiting for justice for the past 41 years and raises serious questions about the credibility of the Indian justice delivery system. He demanded that the Central Government, central investigative agencies and the Delhi Government immediately file Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) in higher courts against all those acquitted in cases related to the 1984 Sikh genocide and pursue these cases with full seriousness.
He said that although Sajjan Kumar has already been awarded life imprisonment in other cases and remains in jail, his brutal and inhuman role in the Sikh genocide makes him deserving of the death penalty. The Congress party, he alleged, not only shielded the perpetrators of the Sikh massacre through political patronage but also rewarded them with key positions in the government and the party, thereby mocking the suffering of innocent Sikhs.
Prof. Khiala emphasized that it is an established historical fact that Sajjan Kumar incited mobs and orchestrated the massacre of innocent Sikhs. His conviction by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018, in the Palam Colony (Delhi Cantt) case involving the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a Gurdwara, as well as his life sentence in the Saraswati Vihar case for burning alive Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh, clearly establishes him as a mastermind of the 1984 Sikh genocide. In such circumstances, acquitting him in the Vikaspuri and Janakpuri cases citing lack of evidence raises serious concerns.
He further pointed out that several verdicts delivered by the Delhi High Court in 1984-related cases were not challenged by the previous Kejriwal-led Delhi government. In many cases, petitions were filed merely as a formality, without serious prosecution or the appointment of senior legal counsel, casting doubts on the sincerity of the pursuit of justice.Prof. Khiala said that following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, a state-sponsored and well-orchestrated genocide of Sikhs took place under the patronage of the Congress government. The first week of November 1984 remains one of the darkest chapters in India’s history, when being a Sikh meant certain death. More than 7,000 innocent Sikhs were brutally killed across 18 states, burned alive, women were subjected to horrific violence, and Sikh homes and properties were looted and destroyed.
He warned that any further delay or laxity in ensuring punishment for the guilty would not only deepen the wounds of the Sikh community but would also amount to a blatant erosion of faith in India’s justice system.
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