The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined a bail petition moved on medical grounds by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who is undergoing life imprisonment in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, observed that Kumar did not require any hospitalisation. The court had perused his medical report.
Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, and senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for some riots victims, opposed the petition.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing Kumar, said his client should be granted bail because if something happened to him in jail, his life imprisonment would become death penalty.
Kumar, 73, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court for murder. The case related to the killing of five Sikhs at Raj Nagar Part-I in Delhi Cantonment on November 1 and 2, 1984, and the burning of a gurdwara at Raj Nagar Part-II.
Mr. Mehta said it would be a “travesty of justice” to enlarge him on bail. The CBI had earlier described Kumar’s role in the crime as that of a “kingpin”.
The riots broke out immediately after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.
