Thirty four years after two young Sikh men were killed by a mob in Mahipalpur village in south Delhi, a Delhi court on Wednesday convicted two men for the murders, marking the first convictions secured by the special investigating team constituted by the home ministry in 2015 for probing 1984 riot cases.
Delivering the judgment, additional sessions judge Anjay Pandey said the prosecution had successfully proved the offence of murder against both.
¡°The common objective of the unlawful assembly, among others, was to murder people of the Sikh community, which is clear from the slogans raised by its leaders and the manner in which the members carried out its objective,¡± said the judge.
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The two men who lost their lives in the anti-Sikh riot frenzy on November 1, 1984, were Hardev Singh, who was then 24 years old, and Avtar Singh, 26.
The court said it had kept ¡°in mind the horrifying events which took place in the worst riots in Delhi when a mob of 800-1,000 people was looting and killing people, burning them alive.¡±
The two convicted men ¡ª Naresh Sehrawat and Yashpal Singh ¡ª allegedly followed the instructions of a then Congress leader.
It was an eyewitness testimony that proved crucial in the conviction of a duo accused of killing two Sikh men during the 1984 riots in the capital.
According to the testimony, relied upon by public prosecutor S K Kain, a Congress leader and one of the accused, Naresh Sehrawat, were leading the mob, exhorting it to attack and kill Sikhs. The testimony was given by Sangat Singh, the brother of one of the victims, Hardev.
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He claimed that when the mob moved towards them, he and Hardev ran to take refuge in the room of one Surjeet Singh, who too was a witness in the case. While running, they looked back and saw their shops being looted and burnt.
The Congress leader and Sehrawat are said to have followed the two, smashing the window, to attack the three brothers ¡ª Hardev, Sangat and Kuldeep ¡ª as well as Surjeet and others. They, in fact, attacked Hardev with his own kripan (dagger) and set the room on fire.
Sangat, Kuldeep and Surjeet, besides Dara Singh and Mohan, were injured in the attack. Sangat regained consciousness on November 5 at a hospital and discovered that his brother had been killed.
It was Kuldeep¡¯s demeanour that proved to be critical for the court took note of the ¡°deep impact¡± the incident had had on his psyche. During his deposition in January this year, he had wept inconsolably and his eyes had turned red. ¡°His testimony remains unshaken and consistent,¡± judge Pandey observed.
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Defence counsel O P Sharma had argued that the investigation agency had not examined any independent person from the village.
He pointed out that the investigation had not shown the recovery of any weapon used in the crime. The judge, however, observed that such a recovery, given the lapse of over 30 years, was virtually impossible.
On the point about not examining any independent witness, the court said: ¡°It was difficult for any person with a good conscience to witness the same.¡±
It pointed out that finding other eyewitnesses ¡ª except for the victims and their relatives ¡ª posed a hurdle as anyone else would have been a part of the mob.
Both accused were also convicted of dacoity, attempt to murder and other serious charges for they attacked the victims with a common intention and burnt their business establishments.
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The murder charge attracts a maximum sentence of death penalty. The court will be pronouncing its order on the quantum of punishment on Thursday.
The other charges besides that of murder are under IPC Sections 452 (house break for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint); 307 (attempt to murder); 324 (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons or means); 395 (dacoity); and 436 (mischief by fire) read with 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of common object).