#1984RiotsVerdict: Phoolka says Sajjan Kumar’s conviction has tightened the noose around Kamal Nath’s neck

Former Congress party lawmaker Sajjan Kumar’s conviction in one of the 1984 riots cases is a symbol of justice, believes advocate HS Phoolka. On Monday, after a wait of 34 long years, the Delhi High Court sentenced Kumar to life imprisonment. The bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel upheld the conviction of five other convicts in the case and reversed the trial court’s judgement, holding Kumar guilty of murder, promoting enmity between groups, and defiling public property. Speaking to Newslaundry‘s Amit Bhardwaj, Phoolka said, “We have got the biggest catch [Kumar].”

The court very clearly pointed out that the circumstances established that Delhi police had “active connivance in the brutal murders being perpetrated”.  The court said that what followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s murder “was carnage of unbelievable proportions in which 2,700 Sikhs were murdered in Delhi alone”.

Notably, one of the counsels seeking justice for the victims, Phoolka said that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had “no remorse, no apology” in his first appearance after the Sikh riots. “For the first time when he came in the public was on November 19, 1984. There was no remorse, no apology. Rather to the contrary he (Rajiv Gandhi) tried to justify it by saying jab bada pedh girta hai to…” Phoolka, who had resigned from his Leader of Opposition post in Punjab to focus on these cases, said these kinds of statements by former PM Gandhi sent a message across to the administration.

Phoolka remembered that Sajjan Kumar was so powerful at a point of time that the Central Bureau of Investigation officials were attacked by a mob and their vehicles were burnt in 1990. He emphasised that the “the noose around Kamal Nath’s neck has been tightened by this judgement”. Phoolka said it was the Supreme Court’s order to form the Special Investigation Team which brought the conviction in this case.