Denied justice for 40 years, riots victims demand death for Sajjan

The harrowing tales of these survivors are a painful testament to the brutality of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a massacre that saw thousands of Sikhs murdered in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards.

Minutes after a Delhi court sentenced former Congress lawmaker Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment for leading a mob that brutally killed two Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, anguish unfolded outside the Rouse Avenue courts. Several victims of the riots, still bearing the weight of decades-old grief, gathered in protest. Holding placards, their eyes brimming with tears and their voices trembling with pain, they demanded that he be awarded the death penalty.

Denied justice for 40 years, riots victims demand death for Sajjan

Among them was 50-year-old Paramjit Kaur, who lost her father to the bloodshed when she was just six. “My father was thrown from the terrace of our house…he sustained 70 stitches on his head before he succumbed,” she recalled.

The horror of that day remains etched in her memory, an indelible wound that time has failed to heal. “My mother and relatives died seeking justice for my father, but nothing ever happened. We saw the corpses of our family, our neighbours… those images will never leave our minds.”

Beside her sat Sheila Kaur, now 70, who lost seven members of her family, including her four brothers. Three of them, newly married, were burnt alive in front of her eyes. “I was content when Kumar was convicted, hoping he would be hanged for what he did to my brothers. But I too will die without getting justice for them,” she said, her hands trembling as she clutched a photograph of her lost loved ones.

Inder Kaur, 74, lost six family members to the carnage. “Kumar will still meet his family in prison, they will share their grief during mulakats (meetings)… but who is there for us? We lost everyone,” she said.

Pappi Kaur, 55, was just 15 when she witnessed her elder brother being killed. His body, like countless others, was discarded like debris in their locality. “He (Kumar) should have been hanged. Only then would his family know the pain we felt when we lost ours.”

The harrowing tales of these survivors are a painful testament to the brutality of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a massacre that saw thousands of Sikhs murdered in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards.

The legal battle has been long and arduous. In 1985, the Ranganath Misra Commission was appointed to investigate the riots, but it led to little progress.

Fresh investigative efforts were made decades later. In 2018, under Supreme Court intervention, the ministry of home affairs constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to re-examine 199 riot cases that had been shut.

The SIT’s 2019 report laid bare the systemic failures that allowed the guilty to walk free. “The whole effort of the police and administration seems to have been to hush up criminal cases concerning the riots… The reason these crimes remained unpunished was the lack of interest shown by the police and authorities,” the report stated.

For the victims, however, these nuanced legal developments mean little. The scars of 1984 run too deep.

“Justice delayed is justice denied. And for us, justice has been denied for 40 years,”said Sheila Kaur, her voice devoid of hope.