Badal blames 'failure' of investigating agencies for Sajjan Kumar's acquittal in 1984 riots case

Chandigarh, Jan 22 (PTI) After a Delhi court acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case linked to 1984 anti-Sikh riots, SAD chief Sukhbir Badal condemned the ''failure" of investigating agencies in the case.
    Badal said that as president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), he assures the Sikh community that the party will not let matters rest here and will continue to fight to deliver justice to the victims of the 1984 riots.
    "The acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 Sikh genocide case has shocked the entire community as well as the right thinking people across the world. It has reopened the deep wounds inflicted on traumatised innocent Sikhs. I strongly condemn the failure of investigating agencies in this case," Badal said in a post on X.
    "...Meanwhile, I want to ask what the @AamAadmiParty govt in Punjab and the earlier one in Delhi did to secure justice in this and similar other cases? The only contribution of @ArvindKejriwal & Co. so far has been to block the release of Sikh prisoners (Bandi Singhs) including Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana, Bhai Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and others," Badal said in his post.
    Jathedar of Akal Takht, which is the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, Giani Kuldip Singh Gargajj said that although Sajjan Kumar is still serving sentences in some other riot-related cases and will remain in jail, his acquittal in one case raises serious questions about the sincerity and seriousness of the government's investigating agencies.
    A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to inciting violence in the Janakpuri area in the national capital during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
    Kumar has been in jail since 2018 after being sentenced by the Delhi High Court to life imprisonment over the murder of five people in Delhi's Palam Colony on November 1 and 2, 1984.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)