Court to hear Sajjan Kumar’s bail plea Wednesday (Second Lead)

NEW DELHI - Delhi High Court will Wednesday hear the anticipatory bail plea of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who had challenged a trial court order rejecting his bail in connection with cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Justice A.K. Pathak will hear Sajjan Kumar’s bail plea along with five others accused in the case.

Apprehending arrest, the former union minister had approached the court Tuesday against the trial court order but the court had refused an early hearing.

A city court had Monday rejected Sajjan Kumar’s anticipatory bail plea, saying the “charges against him were serious”.

Filing the petition through advocate Anil Kumar Sharma, Sajjan Kumar pleaded that the lower court had wrongly rejected his plea on the ground that only the court that had issued summons can grant him bail.

The court, in its 38-page order, had said no exceptional reasons have been brought forth that may entitle the accused for grant of anticipatory bail.

Though the veracity of allegations was the “subject matter of the trial”, the findings suggested that there was some substance in them, it said.

It further held the provision to get anticipatory bail was “neither a passport to the commission of crimes nor a shield against any and all kinds of accusations likely or unlikely”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a chargesheet against Sajjan Kumar and others in two cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the national capital.

Sajjan Kumar is among those accused of instigating mobs that killed over 3,000 Sikhs across Delhi in the days following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on Oct 31, 1984.