Court slams CBI, issues fresh NBW against Sajjan Kumar

A Delhi court today slammed CBI for its failure to arrest former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar and other accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and produce them before it.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma refused the plea of the probe agency to issue proclamation against the accused on the ground that he was absconding. The court issued fresh non-bailable warrant against Kumar and 11 other accused for March 10.

"So far, ground work is concerned, CBI does not seem to be serious enough to apprehend the accused. CBI wants to complete only paper work. These are all stereotype reports," the court said.

The harsh remarks of the court came after the CBI submitted that it had conducted raids at the residences of the accused but failed to apprehend them.

"Is the NBW to be executed at the residences only?," the court asked the probe agency, which submitted that the accused were hiding and concealing themselves from the process of law. During the proceedings, the court posed tough questions to the CBI which submitted that it had undertaken efforts to nab the accused.

"Is this the manner CBI functions? Where have all the accused gone," the ACMM asked. CBI special prosecutor Y K Saxena submitted that the probe agency even took the help of Delhi police to arrest the accused following the NBW issued against them.

Saxena wanted the court to issue the proclamation notice against the accused as the next step to force them to appear before the court.

Advocate I U Khan, appearing for Sajjan Kumar, sought exemption from appearance for the accused on the ground that his anticipatory bail plea has been heard by the High Court which had reserved its order.

Pendency of bail application is reasonable ground to grant exemption in the matter, Khan said. He refuted the CBI's charge that Kumar was absconding.

"In case, Kumar appears before the court and gets arrested, the purpose of filing anticipatory bail becomes infructuous," Khan submitted, adding that exhausting of all remedial measures is the right of the accused.

The court declining the plea of Khan and other accused issued fresh NBW and directed that the process be supervised by the CBI director. Meanwhile, CBI arrested one of the accused Girdhari Lal in the case and produced him before the court.

In a related proceeding, the court accepted CBI's closure report against Kumar and other accused in a case registered with Mongolpuri police station after the complainant, Harvinder Kaur, failed to appear before it despite receiving the notice.

Girdhari was remanded to judicial custody till March 9. Meanwhile, scores of Sikhs gathered outside the Karkardooma court here to lodge their protest against delay in completion of the trial against the accused in the riots cases.

Extra security arrangement was made with the deployment of police personnel outside the court. 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 persons 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, 62, 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.

The CBI also filed a closure report in a case registered with the Mongolpuri police station in which one person was killed in the carnage. In both the chargesheets, Kumar has been accused of promoting enmity between classes under 153-A of the IPC.

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.