Man gets life for killing four in anti-Sikh riots

A Karkadooma court on Monday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering four Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the Capital. Public prosecutor B S Joon had earlier sought capital punishment,stating that it ranked among the rarest of rare cases because the victims — Jaswant Singh,his nephew Anokha Singh,friend Satnam Singh and neighbour Bhajan Singh — were killed in a brutal manner.

The life imprisonment sentence was handed out by Additional Sessions Judge P S Teji to Mahesh alias Dabbu.

According to the prosecution,a mob had attacked Block No 32 of Trilokpuri on November 1,1984,and assaulted Jaswant and his family. They were allegedly pulled out of their house,beaten up and and burnt before Jaswant’s wife,Vidya Kaur.

Additional Sessions Judge P S Teji also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on Mahesh,observing that the prosecution has established that he was a part of the mob that had set the victims’ house on fire on November 1,1984.