SC to hear bail plea of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar convicted in 1984 anti-Sikh riot case

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the bail application filed by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who has been convicted to life imprisonment in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riot case.

The Supreme Court had on April 30 sought CBI’s response on a plea of former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar seeking grant of either interim bail or parole for eight weeks in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

Khokhar and former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar are serving life imprisonment in Tihar jail in the case after the Delhi High Court convicted them on December 17, 2018.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice Aniruddha Bose took note of the submissions made by Khokhar’s counsel that prisons need to be decongested to contain the pandemic as has been suggested by courts as also the government.

The bench, hearing the plea via video conferencing, then asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, to file the response.

Khokhar was earlier granted 4-week parole on January 15 by the top court following the death of his father.

Senior advocate H S Phoolka, who represented riot victims and was in his native village in Punjab, opposed the bail plea.