Sajjan Kumar gets bail in `84 riots case

Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who has been chargesheeted alongwith others for his alleged role in the anti-Sikh riots cases, appeared on Wednesday before a Delhi Court which granted him bail in the matter.

The former outer Delhi MP was granted bail on furnishing a personal bond and surety of Rs 50,000 each by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma.

Besides 64-year-old Kumar, seven other accused also appeared before the court and were granted bail. Kumar, against whom a non-bailable warrant was issued, was already granted anticipatory bail by the Delhi High Court on February 26

The court fixed the matter for further proceedings on March 30.

While co-accused Girdhari Lal was in judicial custody, one Khushal Singh was not present in the court. Meanwhile, scores of Sikhs gathered outside the Karkardooma court raising slogans demanding action against the accused in riots cases. The court had on February 23 issued fresh non-bailable warrants against Kumar and 11 others for failing to appear before it. The CBI had arrested Lal, one of 12 accused, who was remanded to judicial custody till March 9.

The CBI had on January 13 chargesheeted Kumar in a court in two separate cases of allegedly making provocative speeches, leading to the killings of 12 people in the riots. The probe agency filed the two chargesheets after concluding its investigation into the cases registered on the recommendation of Nanavati Commission in 2005.

The cases, in which the chargesheets were filed against Kumar and several others, were registered in police stations in Sultanpuri and Delhi Cantonment following the killing of seven and five persons respectively in the riots that had broken out after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Five persons named in the chargesheet in the case relating to rioting and killings of seven persons at Sultanpuri in north Delhi are Congress leader Kumar, Ved Prakash Pial, Peru, Khushal Singh and Brahma Nand Gupta. Besides Kumar, those named as accused in the murder of five persons in Delhi Cantt during the 1984 riots are Balwan Khokhar, Mahender Yadav, Maha Singh, Capt Bhagmal, Santosh Rani, Girdhari Lal and Krishna Khokhar.