A Delhi court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a murder case connected to 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying his old age and illness weighed in favour of a lesser sentence instead of death penalty.
Special judge Kaveri Baweja’s verdict came over the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh on November 1, 1984.
The judge said the offences committed by Kumar were undoubtedly brutal and reprehensible but underscored certain mitigating factors, including his age of 80 years and illnesses that “weigh in favour of imposing a lesser sentence, instead of death penalty”.
The offence of murder attracts a maximum of death penalty whereas the minimum punishment is life imprisonment.
“The ‘satisfactory’ conduct of the convict as per the report of the jail authorities, the ailments from which he is reportedly suffering, the fact that the convict has roots in the society and the possibility of his reformation and rehabilitation are material considerations which, in my opinion, tilt the scales in favour of sentence for life imprisonment instead of death penalty,” the order said.
Nothing “adverse was reported about Kumar’s behaviour” and his conduct was “satisfactory” according to a jail report, the court added.
The judge went on to add that the case at hand was part of the same incident and could be seen in continuity of the incident for which the Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018.
He was then found guilty of having caused the death of five persons during a similar incident of rioting post the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“Though the killings of two innocent persons in the present case is no less an offence, however, the above noted circumstances, in my opinion, do not make this a ‘rarest of rare case’ warranting imposition of death penalty,” the court said.
The judge therefore awarded life imprisonment to Kumar for being part of the mob which set afire the house of the victims and “brutally killed” the two victims aside from looting their belongings.
Referring to the jail report, the judge observed Kumar was unable to carry out his daily routine properly owing to poor health.
The judge noted the psychiatric and psychological evaluation report of the convict, which revealed that he was under the treatment of the Department of Medicine, Urology and Neurology at Safdarjung Hospital and was prescribed anti depressive and sleep medicines.
Kumar otherwise did not show any signs and symptoms of mental illness or requiring any psychiatric intervention at present, the judge noted.
The judge fined Kumar with approximately Rs 2.4 lakh.
All the sentences were ordered by the court to run concurrently.
According to a report of Nanavati Commission, constituted to probe the violence and its aftermath, there were 587 FIRs filed in Delhi in relation to the riots that saw killings of 2733 people. Of the total, about 240 FIRs were closed by police as “untraced” and 250 cases resulted in acquittal.
Only 28 cases of 587 FIRs resulted in convictions, in which about 400 persons were convicted. About 50 were convicted for murder, including Kumar.
Kumar, an influential Congress leader and an MP at the time, was accused in a case over the killings of five persons in Delhi’s Palam Colony on November 1 and 2 in 1984. He was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in the case and his appeal challenging the punishment is pending before the Supreme Court.
Two other appeals are pending before Delhi high court and the Supreme Court against Kumar’s acquittal and life imprisonment in two other cases respectively.