Anti-Sikh riots case: Supreme Court refuses bail to Sajjan Kumar

The Supreme Court on Friday (September 4) dismissed the interim bail plea of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who is serving a life sentence in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

“It is not a small case. We cannot grant bail,” a three-bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said.

Kumar’s advocate Vikas Singh, prayed the court to grant him bail given his failing health, stating that he has lost nearly 16 kg in his 20 months of incarceration. The apex court, however, said that Kumar cannot continue to stay in hospital as his medical report do not make hospitalisation mandatory.

The Delhi High Court in 2018 had held Kumar guilty of killing a Sikh family of five in Delhi’s Raj Nagar and setting a gurdwara on fire on November 1, 1984 during the anti-Sikh Riots. Kumar was a Congress MP during Indira Gandhi’s prime ministership and had played a key role on the anti-Sikh riots that broke out after the assassination of Gandhi on October 30.

The high court had given the verdict, upending the ruling of a lower court in 2013 which had acquitted Kumar.

Kumar was jailed after he surrendered before a trial court on December 31, 2018.