Delhi, India (December 12, 2013): It is learnt that a Delhi court dismissed Congress leader Sajjan Kumar’s plea seeking to drop nine CBI witnesses in a November 1984 Sikh carnage realted case in which he and three others are facing prosecution.
District judge JR Aryan rejected the plea of accused Sajjan Kumar, Brahmanand Gupta, Peru, and Ved Prakash who had sought removal of CBI’s witnesses claiming they were “irrelevant”.
Sajjan Kumar – Indian politician who is facing murder charges in an incident related to Sikh Genocide 1984
The court also fixed January 10, 13 and 15 for commencing the trial in the case by recording of prosecution evidence.
While dismissing the plea of the accused, the court said it is for the CBI to see which witnesses are to be produced to support its case.
When the defence counsel asked the CBI to tell them the names of the witnesses who will depose in the court, the prosecutor said they will not disclose the names in advance due to the threats being given to them.
The agency said it will inform the defence counsel the names of the witnesses only two-three days before their deposition.
The CBI had earlier said though the charge sheet pertains to killing of six persons it was only restricting the charge relating to murder of Surjit Singh and not of other deceased persons in respect of whom the trial had already taken place.
Sajjan Kumar’s counsel had said the CBI had filed a consolidated charge sheet of three separate FIRs and the nine prosecution witnesses, who are not related to the murder of victim Surjit Singh, should be removed.
He had said three separate FIRs were registered for the murder of six persons but if CBI was restricting its case to only one murder then the witnesses who are not related to this murder should be removed.
The CBI had, however, opposed the plea saying it was for the agency to decide who are relevant or irrelevant witnesses and whom they want to remove.
It may be recalled that Sajjan Kumar is one of the main perpetrators of November 1984 genocidal violence against the Sikhs. He was able to evade prosecution for last three decades as the Indian state has been patronizing the culprits of Sikh genocide 1984. In 2005 a commission (Nanavati Commission) had recommended trial against Sajjan Kumar in some cases but he was acquitted by a trial court, in one of the cases, in a dramatic way in April 2013.
It is notable that ‘genocide’ or ‘crimes against humanity’ were not recognized as punishable crimes under Indian law and Sajjan Kumar is facing charges of murder etc. under ordinary law.