CBI blames Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for inciting 1984 anti-Sikh riots

New Delhi, Apr.23 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday accused Congress leader Sajjan Kumar of inciting the 1984-anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, and added that the killings in the Delhi Cantonment area of the city were not spontaneous.

Television reports quoted the CBI, as saying that Sajjan Kumar allegedly told mobs that not a single Sikh should survive.

The CBI said: "people of a certain community were targeted and that the riots were well-organised and backed by both the government and the police."

On April 12, the CBI apprised a Delhi court of statements of witnesses who had identified Sajjan Kumar, facing trial for his alleged role in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, as the person who was instigating a mob during the carnage.

Sajjan Kumar and five others, Balwan Khokkar, Kishan Khokkar, Mahender Yadav, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal, are facing trial in the killings of six people in Delhi Cantonment during the riots.

They are accused of instigating a mob to kill Sikhs in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The CBI today recalled in a Delhi court the statement of a woman witness who had identified senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar as the person addressing a mob and instigating it to kill Sikhs during the 1984 riots.

Resuming final arguments in the case, CBI prosecutor R S Cheema told District Judge J R Aryan that witness Nirpreet Kaur, whose father was burnt alive in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, had deposed that she had seen Sajjan Kumar addressing a mob on November 3, 1984 and provoking it to attack and kill Sikhs.

The 1984 Anti-Sikh riots were spread over a period of four days across northern India, particularly Delhi.

Armed mobs attacked Sikhs and their propeties in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards for authorising a military operation on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which was then occupied by Sikh extremists led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

The government officially recorded 2,700 deaths from the ensuing chaos.

It also said that about 20,000 had fled Delhi. However, the People's Uinion for Civil Liberties (PUCL) reported that at least 50,000 persons had been displaced.

The most affected regions were neighbourhoods in Delhi. Human rights organisations and the newspapers believe the massacre was organised. (ANI)