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The Delhi High Court on Friday said it will hear in November an appeal by former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar challenging his conviction and life imprisonment in a murder case connected to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The appeal was scheduled to come up for hearing before a bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain, which did not hold the court. The matter has now been fixed for November 19. Kumar was awarded life imprisonment on February 25 by a trial court here, which said that the convict's old age and illness weighed in favour of a lesser sentence instead of the death penalty. The trial court said that though the killings of two innocent persons in the case were no less an offence, it was not a rarest of rare case warranting the imposition of the death penalty. The case relates to the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh on November 1, 1984. The offence of murder attracts a maximum punishment of the death penalty and minimum of life imprisonment. The tri
The UK police on Friday issued an appeal for information over an alleged rape of a British Sikh woman earlier this week, which the force said is being treated as a racially aggravated assault. Police said it was called on Tuesday morning after the woman, in her 20s, reported being sexually attacked at Tame Road, Oldbury, in the Sandwell area of the West Midlands region of England. The two white male suspects are said to have targeted the woman and made a racist remark during the attack. We're investigating after a woman reported to us that she had been raped in Oldbury in what we are treating as a racially aggravated attack, West Midlands Police statement said. The woman has told us that a racist remark was made to her during the attack. We are currently treating it as an isolated incident, the statement added. Police said they are keen to speak with anyone in the area who may have seen the two suspects. One of them is said to have a shaved head, heavy build and was reported to be
The Pakistani government has for the first time in 50 years issued over 6,700 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims for the Baisakhi festival on April 14, an official said on Tuesday. "Under the Pakistan-India Religious Protocol Agreement 1974, up to 3,000 Sikh pilgrims are permitted to visit Pakistan for any religious festival. However, the government has issued 6,751 visas, granting 3,751 additional visas on the special request of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Evacuee Trust Property Board," ETPB Additional Secretary Saifullah Khokhar told PTI. Sikh pilgrims from India will on April 10 arrive here via Wagah Border to mark the Sikh New Year and the founding of the Khalsa. Khokhar said this was the first time in more than 50 years that the Pakistan government had issued additional visas to Sikh pilgrims instead of the agreed ones between the two countries. "Under the auspices of the ETPB, the main ceremony of the Baisakhi festival will be held on April 14 at Gurdwara Janamasthan
The devotional strains of Gurbani and messages of harmony rang out at the Houses of Parliament complex in London this week for a first-of-its-kind Baisakhi celebration. Organised by the British Indian think tank 1928 Institute and diaspora membership organisations City Sikhs and the British Punjabi Welfare Association (BPWA), the event brought together a cross-section of professionals, community leaders and philanthropists at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Room on Monday evening to spotlight the UK-India relationship and contributions of the Sikh community to British life. City Sikhs Chair Jasvir Singh led the proceedings, which included speeches and Gurbani by the Anahad Kirtan Society. It's a real honour to celebrate Baisakhi, the birth of the Khalsa by Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699. Baisakhi celebrates the beginning of the Khalsa and the teachings that accompany this, focussing on equality by proactively removing forms of hierarchy, ego and fear, said Kiran Kaur .
A leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, which is an ally of the country's ruling party, has said there is a "clear" indication of a foreign government being involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen. "As the prime minister shared publicly, there is Canadian intelligence which indicates that a Canadian citizen was killed on Canadian soil and a foreign government was implicated," NDP leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday. Singh's New Democratic Party is the fourth largest party in the House of Commons or Lower House of the Canadian Parliament. Describing the allegations levelled by Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India as a very serious thing, Singh said that his views were based on the intelligence briefing he received. "This is unprecedented intelligence that has come forward and that is why we're going to continue to urge that the Canadian government have a thorough investigation that those responsible are brought forward," the NDP leader .
A video of fugitive radical preacher Amritpal Singh surfaced on social media on Wednesday in which he slammed the Punjab Police for arresting Sikh youths during a crackdown against him. Wearing a black turban and shawl, the Khalistan sympathizer further said if the state government had the intention of making an arrest, police could have come to his house and he would have given up. "The Almighty saved us from the attempt of 'lakhs of cops' who were sent to make an arrest," he further said. The video appeared amid reports that the radical preacher might surrender. Police has launched a major crackdown against Amritpal Singh and members of his outfit 'Waris Punjab De'. The elusive preacher himself, however, gave the police a slip and escaped their dragnet when his cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar district recently.