The Delhi High Court today said it will not grant bail for the time being to two of the three convicts serving life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which five members of a family were killed.
A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta said it will first hear arguments on their appeals against their conviction before passing any order on suspension of sentence.
“We have to deal with the appeals related to death of five persons here, so we need to go through the evidence throughly, we will not give bail today,” it said.
The court’s observation came while hearing the bail pleas of convicts Girdhari Lal and ex-councillor Balwan Khokar who have also challenged their conviction and award of life sentence by the trial court in May last year.
The court also noted that the bail plea of co-convict Balwan Khokar, who was also awarded life term in the case, has already been dismissed by it and hence, it will not grant the relief at this stage.
It, however, said that two other convicts, ex-MLA Mahinder Yadav and Kishan Khokkar, who were awarded three years jail term in milder penal provisions, will remain out.
Meanwhile, the court asked the prosecution to provide the copies of testimonies of prosecution witnesses, including that of complainant Jagdish Kaur. The trial court has relied upon them while convicting the accused.
It also directed the prosecution to provide the copy of the affidavit filed by Kaur before the Rangnath Misra Commission within two days.
The court said it will hear the bail pleas on October 10.
Besides Girdhari Lal, the trial court had also awarded life term to two others, Balwan Khokar and retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, in the case.
Senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted in the case.
Girdhari Lal and Balwan Khokar, in their appeals, “The trial court has been pleased to reach the conclusion that the statement of prosecution witness (PW-1) Jagdish Kaur is untrustworthy, unreliable, contradictory and full of improvements while deciding the involvement of co-accused Sajjan Kumar.
“But while deciding their case and others (Gridhari Lal, Balwan Khokar and Bhagmal), the trial court took a different view and wrongly appreciated the statement of PW-1 to be credible and trustworthy against them.”
The case, in which the five persons were held guilty, relates to the killing of five Sikhs – Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh – by a mob in Raj Nagar area in Delhi Cantonment. They were members of the same family.
