By IANS,
New Delhi : Congress leader Sajjan Kumar Tuesday told a Delhi court, hearing a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against him, that no witness had deposed against him till 2000, around 16 years after the carnage.
While advancing his final argument, the Congress leader told District Judge J.R. Aryan that his name did not figure in any complaint or statement of witness Jagdish Kaur, a victim of the riots.
His advocate I.U. Khan said: “Sajjan Kumar is named as the main accused in this case but Jagdish Kaur did not name him before the Ranganath Misra Commission in 1985. His name surfaced for the first time in 2000 before the Nanavati Commission.”
Both the panels had inquired into the riots.
Khan said she had not made any statement against Sajjan Kumar before the Ranganath Misra Commission in 1985 and the first statement against him was made before the G.T. Nanavati Commission in 2000.
The court was hearing the case against the Congress leader and five others accused of inciting mobs against the Sikh community during the riots.
The case against Sajjan Kumar was lodged on the recommendations of the Nanavati Commission.
In January 2010, the CBI filed two charge sheets against him and others.
The Congress leader is accused of instigating a mob to attack and kill Sikhs after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi Oct 31, 1984.
Sajjan Kumar and five others were booked under sections 302 (murder), 395 (dacoity), 427 (mischief to cause damage to property), 153-A (promoting enmity between different communities) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.