NEW DELHI: A Delhi court last week sentenced an accused to death for murdering two persons in the 1984 riots in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The same person, in another judgment, was sentenced for life for his involvement in the killing of four other persons the order was delivered by the additional district and sessions judge, S.N. Dhingra. This is for the first time that death sentence has been awarded in the case of 1984 riots. The man Kishore alias Kishori was found guilty of rioting and murdering in two cases. The judge noted that it was arrest of the rare cases and Kishori who was by profession a butcher engaged in selling the meat of pigs went around with a meat chopper and butchered the brother and son of Gyan Kaur of Trilokpuri area in East Delhi.
The judge also noted that the two police officers who deposed in one of the cases had said that it was not possible for them to control the mob during 1984 riots because of official non-cooperation and the influence that most of the rioters wielded. One of the Inspector, Baan Singh had told the court that he was asked to go to Swarm Cinema area where the riots were taking place. He went there with team of an Inspector and four constables. When he saw the rioting mob, he asked the constables to open fire but they refused. He then came back to the police station and told the ASP about it but they too did not do anything. Inspector Man phool Singh, too, said that most of the rioters were political workers with lot of political influence. Earlier this month, the same court had sentenced 89 people for 5-year RI for involvement in the riots.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
