In a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, the Delhi High Court upheld the conviction of 88 people and awarded five-year jail term. The high court dismissed their appeals against the conviction by a trial court for burning houses and curfew violations during the riots. Justice R. K. Gauba directed all the convicts to surrender within four weeks.
The convicts had challenged the August 27, 1996 judgment of a Sessions Court which had convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on November 2, 1984, for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi.
Large-scale violence had broken out after then Prime Minister Indhira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards in November 1984, which claimed around 3000 lives across the country.
In Delhi, Trilokpuri, an area inhabited mostly by Sikhs, was the worst hit. It was alleged that the crowds were instigated and in some cases led, by Congress leaders.
The First Information Report in this case says 95 people were killed and around 100 houses were set on fire in Trilokpuri in a span of a few days.
More than 100 people were later arrested for rioting, arson and violating of curfew – 88 of them were convicted by a trial court in Delhi in 1996. Many of the convicts are now dead. Those alive had appealed against the convictions in the Delhi High Court.
In 2015, the Centre decided to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the 220-plus closed cases in the 1984 riots, which Union home minister Rajnath Singh had described as “genocide”.
There were 225 such cases and these included cases against Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, the committee said.
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