New Delhi, Dec 17:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Monday welcomed the conviction of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case, with party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying nobody involved in any riot should be allowed to escape no matter how powerful they are. The party also sought to take credit for setting up an SIT that probed the riots, and alleged BJP’s “collusion” in delaying justice to the “genocide” victims “I welcome Delhi High Court verdict convicting Sajjan Kumar in 1984 riots case. It has been a very long n painful wait for innocent victims who were murdered by those in power. Nobody involved in any riot should be allowed to escape no matter how powerful the individual maybe,” Kejriwal tweeted after the verdict. A statement from the AAP claimed that the accused in the riots were “actively aided and abetted” by all organs of the governance. “Nobody expected the Congress, which was then in power to do justice to riots victims and their families, all inquiry committees and commissions were shams, those who did mock inquiries were rewarded with plum posts,” it alleged.
The 73-year-old Kumar was convicted and sentenced to life term for “remainder of his natural life” by the Delhi High Court in a case relating to killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-I area in Palam Colony in South West Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar part II.
The Aam Aadmi Party also alleged that the BJP which was in power between 1998 and 2004 “did nothing” towards ensuring a concrete probe in the matter.
“What further proof of collusion is required that the retired judge appointed by then Congress government to whitewash the 1984 probe was also appointed by the BJP government in Gujarat to probe the 2002 riots,” said the party.
Claiming that it was Arvind Kejriwal who had first recommended setting up of an independent special investigation team (SIT) to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases, the party alleged that the Modi government set up the panel in a “tearing hurry” after the AAP’s historic win in Delhi in 2015.
The Modi government set up the SIT a day before the Delhi government was to be sworn-in in February 2015, it said, adding the entire action of Modi government was suspect.
The Delhi Assembly in June 2015 had passed a resolution terming the riots as “genocide” and seeking a time-bound report from the SIT and “exemplary punishment” for the perpetrators, it said.
The AAP said the verdict came as “slim glimmer of hope” for the victims families demanding all pending cases must be decided without any further delay.
