Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was fearing arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Monday told the Delhi High Court that he is ready to undergo any scientific tests to prove his innocence.
Arguing on Sajjan Kumar’s behalf before the court, senior advocate I.U. Khan said: “Please put me under any scientific test like narco analysis or lie detector to prove my innocence.”

“I have never misused the liberty and never intimidated any witness. My past conduct is satisfactory,” Khan said while pressing for interim relief for Kumar, against whom non bailable warrants have been issued by the trial court.

Justice A.K. Pathak, however, refused to grant any interim relief to Kumar, and reserved the order and said, “I will not do the job of a magistrate.”

Kumar will now have to appear before the trial court Tuesday. A non bailable arrest warrant was issued against him Feb 17.

The court also questioned how a separate charge sheet had been filed when there were no new victims. “When there is no new victim then why is the CBI filing fresh complaints?”

On this, CBI counsel Vikas Pahwa informed the court that the CBI is contesting these cases after the recommendation of the Nanavati Commission, set up to probe the 1984 riots.

“Meaningful purpose should be there to interrogate the person. The person should not remain in limbo like this,” the court said while stressing the right of the accused to apply for interim bail.

Special Public Prosecutor R.S. Cheema argued for the CBI and said, “Though Sajjan’s name did not figure during deposition by witnesses before the court but all the affidavits mentioned his name.”

“If we want to ensure fair trial then people should be punished,” said Cheema.

“Entire effort is to put these people behind bars to settle scores. If this (earlier) investigation was faulty then the right persons should be punished accordingly,” former Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Sharan said, adding that it was like “old wine in a new bottle”.

He contended that Sajjan Kumar’s name had appeared among the accused only six years after the 1984 riots took place. While his name did not not figure soon after the riots, but it did in 1990. However, even then over 100 witnesses did not name him either, he said.

The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Sajjan Kumar and others in two cases for allegedly instigating mobs after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi Oct 31, 1984. Over 3,000 Sikhs across Delhi were killed in the communal frenzy in the days following the assassination.