Anti-Sikh riots: Court reserves sentence for Sajjan till Feb 25 | Delhi News – The Times of India

New Delhi: A court on Friday reserved its order on the quantum of sentence against former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case for Feb 25.
The court of special judge Kaveri Baweja asked the defence counsel to file their written submissions within two days. “Put up for order on the quantum of sentence on the next date of hearing,” it said.
The court also sought a report from the Tihar Jail administration on Kumar’s psychiatric and psychological evaluation in view of a Supreme Court order asking for such a document in cases attracting capital punishment.
Kumar, currently lodged in Tihar Jail, is already undergoing a life sentence awarded by Delhi High Court in another 1984 riots case in Delhi Cantt.
On Feb 12, the court convicted Kumar of the murder of a father and son, besides other offences, including rioting and unlawful assembly, saying it was established that the accused, being a member of such an unlawful assembly, was guilty of committing the murder of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh.
On Friday, senior advocate HS Phoolka appeared through videoconference before the court for the complainant and submitted his written submissions seeking capital punishment for Kumar. Phoolka described the crime as genocide and cold-blooded murder, claiming that Kumar, leading the mob, was responsible for inciting the violence.
On Feb 18, the prosecution, led by additional public prosecutor Manish Rawat, also sought capital punishment through written submissions, pointing out the gravity of the crime and terming the case as “rarest of rare”.
Rawat submitted that incidents of this kind broke the “entire fibre of trust and harmony amongst communities”, severely affecting the “knitting and assimilation of different religious or social groups”. The riots led to a large-scale migration of Sikhs, severely prejudicing their lives and livelihoods, he argued.
The prosecution claimed that the present case was graver than the Nirbhaya case, as in that case, a young woman was targeted, but in the current one, people of a particular community were attacked.