Muslim Body Welcomes Delhi HC Verdict in Anti-Sikh Riots Case, Demands Anti-Genocide Law

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India Tomorrow
New Delhi, Dec 17: A pan-India umbrella body of Muslim organizations has welcomed the Delhi High Court verdict in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case whereby a senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and some others were awarded life sentence.

The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM) has also welcomed the reference in the verdict to the riots of Mumbai (1993), Gujarat (2002), Kandhamal (2008) and Muzaffarnagar (2013).

AIMMM President Navaid Hamid “welcomed the judgement in Anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and conviction of Sajjan Kumar who is an important criminal actor of this anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi in 1984.”

Thirty-four years after the gruesome killings, a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court on Monday convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life, holding that the violence was a “crime against humanity” engineered by politicians with assistance from police.

In their 207-page judgement, Justices S. Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel also mentioned several major communal riots and said that targeting of minorities was spearheaded by “dominant political actors” during those riots.

The bench said: “In India, the riots in early November 1984 in which in Delhi alone 2,733 Sikhs and nearly 3,350 all over the country were brutally murdered (these are official figures) was neither the first instance of a mass crime nor, tragically, the last. The mass killings in Punjab, Delhi and elsewhere during the country’s partition remains a collective painful memory as is the killings of innocent Sikhs in November 1984. There has been a familiar pattern of mass killings in Mumbai in 1993, in Gujarat in 2002, in Kandhamal, Odisha in 2008, in Muzaffarnagar in U.P. in 2013 to name a few.”

AIMMM president welcomed the reference to other riots.

“We also welcome the references of other anti-minority violent incidents of past including that of Gujarat and Orissa in the Sajjan Kumar conviction judgement,” said Hamid.

The High Court also stressed on the need to bring ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ in the purview of India’s criminal law.

“Common to these mass crimes were the targeting of minorities and the attacks spearheaded by the dominant political actors being facilitated by the law enforcement agencies. The criminals responsible for the mass crimes have enjoyed political patronage and managed to evade prosecution and punishment. Bringing such criminals to justice poses a serious challenge to our legal system. As these appeals themselves demonstrate, decades pass by before they can be made answerable. This calls for strengthening the legal system. Neither ‘crimes against humanity’ nor ‘genocide’ is part of our domestic law of crime. This loophole needs to be addressed urgently,” said the Delhi HC bench.

Hamid also demanded an anti-genocide law.

“If union government led by PM Narendra Modi is sincere in slogan of justice for all, it should bring anti-genocide law in parliament in the current session only as India is signatory to the Anti Genocide Declaration of United Nations since more than six decades. The violent incidents against minorities and other marginalised groups occurred only because of planned hate campaigns and hatred towards them because of their identities and patronage of the state actors,” said Hamid.

Dr. Tasleem Rahmani, national president, Muslim Political Council of India, said: “Delhi HC rightly observed it was political patronage (because of which) 84 Sikh riot accused were spared and even glorified. Same is the case of Babri Masjid demolition accused and 2002 (Gujarat riots accused).”

He also said that the Sikh community is getting justice because they fought the case tirelessly.

“It was Sikh community fighting tirelessly since 35 years. Muslim community failed to fight a legal battle in this consistent way. Babri Masjid criminal conspiracy case is pending in a session court even after 26 years and none of our community leaders are even aware of the present status of the case while accused rose to become Dy PM, cabinet ministers and governor without even a single word of protest from the community,” said Rahmani.

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