Outside the gates of Karkadooma courts,more than a dozen policemen stood vigilant,armed with guns and batons on Monday. In the court compound,several 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims,families of victims and others too young to have been around in 1984 paced around. Inside courtroom 2,Congress leader and former Member of Parliament Sajjan Kumar,an accused in the riots,filed an application seeking certain documents related to the case. The court gave the date for next hearing. In 10 minutes,everyone dispersed. The police left soon after Kumar,as did the three other accused persons. The riot victims and lawyers spoke to the media and discussed their reply to the application in the next hearing. The chargesheet has been filed against Kumar and eight others in two cases for allegedly instigating mobs after assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31,1984. More than 3,000 Sikhs were killed across the Capital and relatives and friends of the victims follow the cases religiously and come to almost all the hearings. On Monday,Kumar sought documents including judicial and police records of certain cases registered at Sultanpuri police station and a copy of memorandum of action taken on the report of Justice G T Nanavati Commission,set up to inquire into the 84 riots. Y K Saxena,the CBI counsel,submitted that the accused had made a similar sort of plea that had already been dismissed by the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sunita Gupta,however,directed CBI to file its reply on the application on April 7. Senior counsel H S Phoolka,representing the victims families,reminded ASJ Gupta that the trial court has to conclude the proceedings within six months. Outside the court,he told the media that Kumars lawyers want to prolong the case. According to the Supreme Court order,this is not the stage for seeking documents,he said. It is premature and they know it too,but they successfully delayed it again. Sajjan Kumar,Khushal Singh,Girdhari Lal,Balwan Khokhar,Mahender Yadav,Maha Singh,Capt Bhagmal,Santosh Rani and Krishna Khokhar are the nine accused in the murder of five people in Delhi Cantonment in the 1984 riots.
