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High Court upholds conviction in
1984 anti-Sikh riots case
NEW DELHI: The
Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of three accused in an
anti-Sikh pogrom case of 1984 in the East Delhi area of Trilokpuri.
A Delhi court
had in 1996 sentenced the three accused -- Ved Prakash, Om Prakash
and Karamat -- to life imprisonment. Upholding that judgment, a
Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan
Kaul and Justice Ajit Bharihoke said there was no need to interfere
in it as there was no infirmity in it. The lower court had sentenced
the three accused mainly on the basis of evidence by Vidyavati Devi,
wife of the deceased, Thakur Singh.
The allegation
of the Kalyanpuri police against the three convicts was that they
had led a killer mob that had dragged the victim out of his
neighbour’s house where he had taken shelter on the preceding day
and set him on fire. The mob had earlier attacked the house of the
victim on November 1 but he along with his family was able to escape
and took shelter in the house of a neighbour, Laxman Das. However,
the mob also attacked the neighbour’s house the following day.
The mob fist set
a three-wheeler of the victim on fire and then threw him inside it,
the charge-sheet said.
The pogrom had
broken out in the Capital following the assassination of Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
In another
anti-Sikh pogrom case, however, the High Court acquitted an accused
for lack of evidence.
In that case,
three Sikhs were killed. There were a total of five accused but four
of them had died during the trial and hearing of the appeal.
9
December 2009
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