Supreme Court rejects 1984 riots convict Sajjan Kumar's plea seeking interim bail on health ground

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday dismissed the plea of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who is serving life imprisonment in an 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, seeking interim bail on health grounds.

"Sorry. We are not inclined. Dismissed," a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Kumar, argued that interim bail be granted to Kumar on health grounds as he has been in jail for 20 months and has lost nearly 16 kg weight and needs to recover from past ailments.

Senior advocate H S Phoolka, who has been appearing for some of the riots victims, opposed the plea and said whatever treatment is needed Kumar is already being given the same at hospital.

Kumar is serving life imprisonment after the Delhi High Court had convicted him and others in the case on December 17, 2018.

The high court had reversed the acquittal of Kumar by the trial court in 2013 in the case related to the killings of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar Part-I area in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

The riots had broken out after the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards.