1984 'carnage': HC blasts Delhi Police for 'active connivance' in brutal murders

The killing of over 2,700 Sikhs in the national capital during the 1984 riots was a "carnage of unbelievable proportions" and the way the Delhi Police acted at that time established their "apathy" and "active connivance" in the brutal murders, the Delhi High Court Monday said in stringent observations.

The high court, which convicted and sentenced senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to life term for "remainder of his natural life" in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, blasted the Delhi Police for its "abject failure" in probing the violence following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

It said that police had "indeed turned a blind eye and blatantly abetted the crimes committed by the rioting mob" and the probe conducted by them in these cases was a farce.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel noted it was "extraordinary" that despite there being as many as 341 deaths in the Delhi Cantonment area alone over the span of four days beginning November 1, 1984, only 21 FIRs were lodged, of which only 15 pertained to deaths or murders.

"Ultimately, only five bodies were recovered and that too was because of the intervention of Army," the high court said, adding, it is "trite" that for each incident involving offence of murder, a separate FIR had to be registered.

In its judgement, the bench said, "What happened in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira Gandhi was indeed carnage of unbelievable proportions in which over 2,700 Sikhs were murdered in Delhi alone".

Referring to the case on killing of five Sikhs, the bench said, "The law and order machinery had clearly broken down and it was literally a free for all situation which persisted."