Breaking News:1984 Anti-Sikh Riots: Life Imprisonment For Three, 2 Escape With 3-Year Jail Term

[JSinghnz]

PTI | May 9, 2013, 07.51 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Three people were on awarded life imprisonment in a 29-year-old 1984 anti-Sikh riots case by a Delhi court which said the offences were grave as the victims of a particular community had been targeted and the acts of the convicts were most gruesome in nature.

District judge JR Aryan gave life term to ex-councillor Balwan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal for murder and rioting in the case in which senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted on April 30, which CBI had reportedly said would challenge in the Delhi high court.

The court rejected CBI's plea for death sentence to Balwan, Lal and Bhagmal, saying their offence does not come under the category of rarest of rare warranting capital punishment.

"They had no special or personal animosity towards anyone or the deceased individually. The assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had blindfolded those youths and unfortunately, there was no leadership to bridle the mob frenzy unleashed with all cruelty," it said.

Two other convicts, ex-MLA Mahinder Yadav and Kishan Khokkar were awarded three-year imprisonment and the court rejected their plea to release them on probation.

Kumar was acquitted by the court which held that he deserved "benefit of doubt" since one of the victims and key witness Jagdish Kaur did not name him as an accused in her statement recorded by the Justice Ranganath Mishra panel in 1985.

The case, in which the five people were held guilty pertains to killing of five Sikhs — Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh — by the mob in Raj Nagar area in Delhi Cantonment. The victims were members of the same family.

In his ten-page order on sentence, the court said "... There cannot be two opinions that offences committed in this case were grave where victims of a particular community had been targeted for killing and destroying their properties. This court has already taken the facts into consideration that there were 341 killings in the area of police station Delhi Cantonment of this case itself."

[JasSinghKhalsa]

Very strange Verdict, Is Death sentence meant only for Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Tamils & Dailts in India?

[Hammertime007]

[lsingh]

Are they Namdharis with Tytler? When was this picture taken? The trouble is most of the groups that are supported by the Indian Govt such as many of the cults , Babas and Dera types have to show their loyalty to their masters from time to time. Even the Badal Dal have only spoken with some energy about the 1984 genocide after 30 years as the Sikhs abroad have made it a big issue. The Badals also see it as a vote winner against the Congress.

[JasSinghKhalsa]

[proud2bejatt]

How do you know they'll really get that sentence? How do you know they won't be in for a bit, to hush everything have been given massive amounts of money, and then will be smuggled out and given new identities. \

This is after all India, you see it in movies which shows it's a cultural trait.