Nemesis catches up. Justice overwhelmingly delayed, but finally not denied. Delhi High Court sentences Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to life sentence for conspiring to kill 5 Sikhs in November 1984.

Overturning a judgement of the lower court acquitting Sajjan Kumar of his involvement in the killing of 5 Sikhs of the family of Jagdish Kaur, the Delhi Court has sentenced Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment and asked to surrender by 31 December and not to leave the city of Delhi.

73 year old Sajjan Kumar becomes the first key leader of the Indian National Congress to be so sentenced as so far all big fish have escaped the dragnet. This provides hope to the victim families who want to see the Congress leadership, senior police personnel and bureaucrats behind bars for their conspiratorial roles in the mass killings of the Sikhs on 1-2 November 1984.

A High Court bench comprising Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel delivered the verdict in the case related to the killing of five people in the Raj Nagar area of the Delhi Cantonment.  The judges told in open court that, “It is important to assure the victims that despite the challenges truth will prevail. The aftershock of those atrocities is still being felt.”

The court appreciated the courage of prime witness Jagdish Kaur and remarked, “the perpetrators enjoyed political patronage.” This lends credence to the Sikh call or terming the November 1984 mass killings as genocide.

After the death of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, officially 2733 Sikhs were killed in November 1984 though unofficial figures range upto 5000 and more.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an appeal challenging Kumar’s acquittal saying that the trial court had “erred in acquitting Sajjan Kumar as it was he who had instigated the mob during the riots”.

In the same case, five individuals —Kishan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal, former councillor Balwan Khokkar, former legislator Mahender Yadav and Captain Bhagmal  were  convicted in 2013 and sentenced for three years, which term has been increased by the Delhi High Court to 10 years.