By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought the CBI’s response on Congress leader Sajjan Kumar’s plea against a trial court order dismissing his claim that the probe agency ignored documents given by a witness in an anti-Sikh riots case.
Justice S.P. Garg, while seeking reply from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said: “You file a short reply to the petition.”
The court would next hear the case July 3.
There was no urgency to rush to the high court during the vacation as the trial judge had fixed the matter for hearing July 13, said the court.
The court was hearing the case against Sajjan Kumar and five others accused of inciting mobs against the Sikh community during the riots that broke out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi Oct 31, 1984.
The trial court June 2 dismissed the plea of Sajjan Kumar who said that the affidavits and statements of the complainant and key witness Jagdish Kaur, given earlier to the judicial commissions that probed the riots, should be allowed to be used to confront her with her recent testimony in the ongoing trial.
The Congress leader said that CBI prosecutor R.S. Cheema made a statement in the court July 12, 2010 that affidavits of witness (Kaur) in the case and statement to G.T. Nanavati and Ranganath Misra Commissions, which inquired into the riots, could not be used as they were contradictory.
The CBI said as per the provisions of the Commission of Inquiry Act, the affidavits and statements of a witness given before any commission could not be used against her for the purpose of questioning her testimony.