NEW DELHI: The Law Ministry officials have been waiting for the past six months for “signals from the top” to decide on the CBI’s plea for charge sheeting Outer Delhi Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, for his alleged involvement in the November 1984 riots.

According to sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it was during the second week of April that it received official sanction from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, to go ahead with the charge sheet.

But soon afterwards, the Government had second thoughts and referred the matter to the Law Ministry for its opinion.

By referring the matter to different ministries, the Congress regime was deliberately trying to avoid the filing of a charge sheet against its own MP,” says a senior CBI officer.

Interestingly, in the first week of March itself, Home Minister S.B.Chavan had given an assurance to Parliament that Sajjan Kumar would be charge sheeted “shortly.”

The CBI booked a case against Sajjan Kumar on September 7,1990, on the basis of a recommendation of the Poti-Rosha Committee that took cognizance of an affidavit filed by Anwar Kaur, widow of Naveen Singh,

The affidavit was initially filed by Kaur before the Jain-Banerjee Committee, claiming that Sajjan Kumar had been preset at the spot when her husband was slain and also that Sajjan Kumar was instrumental in instigating the crowd.

The Committee recommended that a case be registered against Sajjan Kumar, but the Delhi High Court, in a ruling on a writ petition filed by Sajjan Kumar, observed that the committee was not authorized to accept or act on any such allegations.

After the VP Singh Government assumed power in 1989, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Arjan Singh, as the Lt. Governor of Delhi, issued a fresh notification on March 22,1990, to constitute the Poti Rosha Committee.

The Lok Sabha MP from the Outer Delhi constituency was arrested by the CBI’s Special Investigation Cell on September 11,1990, with five others, in connection with the murder of Naveen Singh during the 1984 riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

However, since Sajjan Kumar had managed to obtain an anticipatory bail from the Delhi High Court before the arrival of CBI officials at his heavily guarded residence at Madhipur in West Delhi he had to be released immediately,

Article extracted from this publication >> October 23, 1992