The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to grant interim bail on medical grounds to former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar who is serving captivity in an 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
A bench comprising judge S A Bobde and Justices Indu Malhotra and Hrishikesh Roy perused his report and said that he didn’t need hospitalization at the instant.
Declining the interim bail plea, the bench, holding proceedings via video conferencing, said that it might hear the regular bail application in July.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, and senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for a few riots victims, opposed the bail plea of the convict leader.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing Kumar, said that his client be granted bail as if something happens to him in jail then his captivity would become execution for him.
Kumar and Balwan Khokhar are serving captivity in Tihar jail within the case after the Delhi Supreme Court convicted them on December 17, 2018.
Khokhar has also sought parole within the case. His life was upheld by the Delhi supreme court in 2018, while it had reversed the acquittal of Kumar by the court in 2013, during a case associated with the killings of 5 Sikhs within the Raj Nagar Part-I area in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.
The riots had broken out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards.
The Supreme Court had also upheld the conviction and ranging sentences awarded by the court to the opposite five — Khokhar, retired military officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former MLAs Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.
It had also convicted them for criminal conspiracy to burn down residences of Sikh families and a gurdwara within the area during the riots.
The court in 2013 had awarded life term to Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal, and a three-year jail term to Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.
Following the Supreme Court verdict, life term of Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal has been upheld and therefore the sentence of Yadav and Kishan Khokar has been enhanced to 10 years in jail.
