1984 riots: Court reserves order afresh on transfer pleas

A Delhi court has reserved its order for February 12 on pleas of three accused who, along with Congress leader Sajjan Kumar are facing trial in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, seeking transfer of the case on the ground of jurisdiction.
District Judge Rakesh Siddhartha, who recently took over the charge, heard the arguments afresh on the applications and fixed the matter for pronouncing order on it.
"Arguments heard afresh on application moved on behalf of accused persons for transfer of this case. To come up for orders on February 12, 2015," the court said.
Earlier, the order on the pleas was reserved for January 31 by District Judge Talwant Singh, who got transfered to another court before pronouncing the verdict.

Sajjan Kumar, Brahmanand Gupta, Peeriya and Ved Prakash are facing trial on charges of murder and rioting in a case of killing of Surjit Singh in Sultanpuri area of West Delhi.
The pleas were moved by Gupta, Peeriya and Ved Prakash for transfer of the case from Karkardooma district court in East Delhi to Rohini district court on ground of jurisdiction.

The counsel for Gupta and Peeriya had argued the case needed to be transferred to its respective district Rohini for want of jurisdiction as the alleged occurrence pertained to Sultanpuri area and not the jurisdiction of this court.
Ved Prakash's advocate had argued that the court should implement the Delhi High Court's 2013 order asking sessions judges to transfer the cases as per their jurisdiction.

CBI prosecutor D P Singh, however, had opposed the pleas saying as per the provisions of CrPC, district judge does not have the power to transfer a case from his division to another and this power lies only with the high court.
He had sought dismissal of the pleas contending that when the HC's 2013 order was passed, this case was already pending but the accused did not raise this issue at that time.
"This is blatantly an attempt for forum shopping," he had argued.
The court in July 2010 had framed various charges, including murder and rioting, against Kumar, Gupta, Peeriya, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash in connection with killing of a man in Sultanpuri in the riots that had occurred after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. Accused Khushal Singh has since died.

The trial court had also framed charges for the offence of spreading enmity between two communities against the accused in the case.