By INAS,
New Delhi: Congress leader Sajjan Kumar Wednesday countered the refusal of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hand over to him more documents related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases against him and claimed he was within his right to seek these.
Appearing before Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta, Kumar’s counsel I.U. Khan cited legal provisions and said that the accused can seek documents from the investigating agency at any stage of the case.
Counsel for the CBI said the investigating agency has already filed all documents that it wanted to.
The court asked the CBI to explain why certain documents as pointed out by Kumar and other co-accused were not produced. The next hearing was slated for April 14 and 15.
Khan earlier asked the CBI to produce three first information reports (FIRs) related to Kumar and other co-accused in the case, filed in various courts. He also sought the action taken report on the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission investigation on the riots.
The commission was established by the central government in 2000 to investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Khan said the complete action taken report has not been brought on record by the CBI. “There are only extracts of the report in the charge sheet. Also there are different charge sheets and FIRs filed in different courts which are also not in the charge sheet given to us by the CBI,” he said.
“Though the action taken report was presented in parliament, the CBI has not presented it in the court,” he said.
He claimed that Kumar will be at a disadvantage if the documents sought by him are not presented in the court.
Sajjan Kumar, Khushal Singh, Girdhari Lal, Balwan Khokhar, Mahender Yadav, Maha Singh, Capt Bhagmal, Santosh Rani and Krishna Khokhar were named as accused in the murder of five people in Delhi Cantonment in the 1984 riots following then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
On March 10, the court granted bail to Sajjan Kumar and others. The accused furnished a surety and personal bond of Rs.50,000 each.