Sajjan Kumar instigated mob to kill Sikhs, says riot victim

A riot victim today identified in a city court Congress leader Sajjan Kumar as the one who had allegedly instigated the mob to kill Sikhs during the 1984 genocide that broke out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Deposing as a prosecution witness, Sheela Kaur told the court that she had seen Sajjan Kumar allegedly addressing the crowd that Sikhs had killed "our mother" and instigated the mob to kill them.
"On November 1, 1984, I do not remember the time, I heard noise outside my house. I came out of the house and saw huge crowd collected in the park opposite my house. I saw accused Sajjan Kumar addressing the crowd that the Sikhs had killed our mother. The crowd started raising slogans.

"Accused Sajjan Kumar continued to say kill everyone, burn their houses. I ran inside my house. The crowd rushed to my house carrying lathis...," Kaur deposed before District Judge Kamlesh Kumar.
She told the court the mob had killed three of her family members - husband Balbir Singh, father-in-law Basant Singh and brother-in-law Balihar Singh after dragging them out.
Sajjan Kumar, Brahmanand Gupta and Ved Prakash are facing trial on charges of murder and rioting in the case of killing of Surjit Singh in Sultanpuri area of West Delhi.

The court had in July 2010 framed charges, including murder and rioting, against Kumar, Gupta, Peeriya, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash in connection with Surjit's killing in the riots. Accused Khushal Singh and Peeriya have since died.

The trial court had also framed charges for the offence of spreading enmity between two communities against the accused in the case.
Senior advocate H S Phoolka, who represents victims in the case, said during the proceedings today, he and CBI prosecutor raised objections that version of the witness has not been correctly recorded.
During cross-examination by Sajjan Kumar's advocate I U Khan, the witness said she does not remember whether any police officials had come to her in February 1985 or if her statement was recorded by the cops.
She said on the day of incident 49 persons were killed in her street. Her cross-examination remained inconclusive and would continue on September 17, the next date of hearing.