A CBI court has granted bail to former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in connection with the killing of a man and his son during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, noting that his name was first taken by the complainant after a period of seven years. The present case relates to the killing of West Delhi's Raj Nagar residents Jaswant Singh and his son Tarun Deep Singh by a mob. The prosecution had claimed that Kumar was leading the mob and upon his instigation and abetment, the mob had burnt alive the two men, set fire to their house, and inflicted severe injuries on those staying there. Kumar has already been convicted in another case and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was earlier acquitted by the Sessions court, but this was reversed after the CBI filed an appeal before the Delhi High Court. He was later sentenced to undergo a prison term for the remainder of his life. Despite grant of bail in the current case, Kumar will remain incarcerated. Special Judge M K Nagpal granted bail to Kumar on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh. The judge observed that "there are various and different versions of the incident as narrated by the complainant and the other two victims of the case". The judge said that during the first year, "there was even no specific statement or claim made by any of them" regarding them being eyewitnesses, and "it is only thereafter that such a claim was made for the first time by the complainant”. The court said that the statement by Jaswant's daughter was recorded after 32 years and another victim who recorded her statement did not make any claims about witnessing the killing or the identity of the accused. "Even the name of accused as the person instigating or leading the mob is found to have been taken for the first time with certainty by the complainant after a long gap of around seven years from the date of incident, though prior to that she (witness) only stated that she had seen a photograph of the accused in some magazine, which resembled with one person who was leading the mob on the date of incident," the court observed. The court also perused a threat perception report which stated that the witnesses in this case "did not have any such threat by the accused at this point in time”. It also said that there was "a huge gap of more than 5 years even between the date when investigation was assigned to SIT and the date when the accused has been formally arrested in the case”. On the prosecution arguing that the gravity of the offence has to be looked into while deciding bail and that Kumar may influence witnesses or tamper with evidence, the court said, "Such apprehensions by the prosecution in opposing bail of the accused have to be reasonable and not vague or mere apprehensions or those based on flimsy grounds.” The FIR was registered on September 9, 1985. During the investigation, the police filed a final report before a magistrate court. The case was directed to be sent as untraced. In 2015, a three-member Special Investigation Team, constituted by the central government to reinvestigate the cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, decided to reopen the case.
