1984 riots convict Sajjan Kumar writes to Rahul Gandhi, resigns from Congress membership

A day after being convicted in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, former MP Sajjan Kumar Tuesday wrote to Congress president Rahul Gandhi resigning from the primary membership of the party. “I tender my resignation with immediate effect from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress in the wake of the judgment of the Hon’ble high court of Delhi against me,” Sajjan wrote to Gandhi, according to PTI. The development comes nearly 24 hours after the Delhi High Court reversed a trial court’s decision and sentenced Kumar to life for killing five members of a family in the wake of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel also made clear that Kumar’s life imprisonment will be for the remainder of his life. Kumar has been given time till December 31 to surrender before the police in the case. Kumar rose to prominence within the Delhi political circles in the 80s before he was elected to the Lok Sabha as part of UPA-I in 2004. The court in its verdict noted, “The criminals responsible for the mass crimes have enjoyed political patronage and managed to evade prosecution and punishment. Bringing such criminals to justice poses a serious challenge to our legal system. Decades pass by before they can be made answerable.” Kumar was acquitted by a special CBI court on April 30, 2013, while it had held five other accused guilty of the crime. The court cited lack of evidence against him as the basis of its then judgment. The CBI and victims of the riots had filed appeals against the acquittal of Kumar in the Delhi High Court. The others convicted in the case had also filed appeals against their conviction. All appeals were heard together and the judgment was reserved on October 27. In its verdict, the High Court said that the accused were brought to justice “primarily on account of the courage and perseverance of three eyewitnesses”. “Jagdish Kaur whose husband, son and three cousins were the five killed; Jagsher Singh, another cousin of Jagdish Kaur, and Nirpreet Kaur who saw the Gurudwara being burnt down and her father being burnt alive by the raging mobs,” the court said. Source: Indian Express