LAWS(DLH)-2018-12-152

STATE THROUGH CBI Vs. SAJJAN KUMAR & ORS

Decided On December 17, 2018
STATE THROUGH CBI Appellant
V/S
Sajjan Kumar And Ors Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the summer of 1947, during partition, this country witnessed horrific mass crimes where several lakhs of civilians, including Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus were massacred. A young poet, Amrita Pritam, who fled to this country with her two little children from Lahore was witness to the manifold tragedies during that perilous journey. She was moved to pen an "Ode to Waris Shah" in which she spoke of the fertile land of Punjab having "sprouted poisonous weeds far and near" and where "Seeds of hatred have grown high, bloodshed is everywhere / Poisoned breeze in forest turned bamboo flutes into snakes / Their venom has turned the bright and rosy Punjab all blue". The killings would continue in the streets of Delhi. Thirty-seven years later, the country was again witness to another enormous human tragedy. Following the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on the morning of 31st October 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards, a communal frenzy was unleashed. For four days between 1st and 4th November of that year, all over Delhi, 2,733 Sikhs were brutally murdered. Their houses were destroyed. In the rest of the country too thousands of Sikhs were killed.

(2.) The Central Bureau of Investigation ("CBI") has filed Crl.A.1099/2013 challenging the complete acquittal of A-1 and the acquittal of the other accused for the other charges framed against them. The complainant, Jagdish Kaur (PW-1), had also preferred Crl.A.850/2013 against the acquittal of A-1 which was subsequently withdrawn, with this Court granting her liberty to address arguments in Crl.A.1099/2013.

(3.) The convicted accused, have filed separate appeals. Crl.A.861/2013 has been preferred by A-2, Crl.A.715/2013 by A-3, Crl.A.851/2013 by A-4, Charges framed against A-1