1984 victims withdraw plea to produce articles against Sajjan

The victims of anti-Sikh riots today withdrew their plea seeking permission to bring on record two news articles of 1984 about the alleged role of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the massacre after a Delhi court assured them that it will look into the issue.
District Judge J R Aryan refused to summon the editors of the two English dailies in which the articles had appeared saying that at this stage it would delay the proceedings.
The court has fixed the case for April 3 as the last day for the counsel of CBI, the accused and the victims to conclude their arguments in the case.

Senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the victims, withdrew the application after the court told them that it will look into the content of Sajjan's plea that if he had done whatever has now been alleged against him, at least one paper would have published the news in 1984.
"It is for the court to see what is the value of this plea raised by Sajjan Kumar during final arguments and if the editors of these newspapers are summoned at this stage, it would delay the proceedings," the judge said.
Phoolka, referring to the two newspapers clippings which had mentioned Sajjan's role in 1984 riots, said "the assertion made on behalf of accused Sajjan Kumar is incorrect and misleading. These assertions are made for the first time during the written arguments..."

"It is submitted that reports about the complicity of Sajjan Kumar in the riots were published widely in the media across the country," the plea filed by victims and witnesses Jagdish Kaur and Nirpreet Kaur said.