New Delhi: A Delhi court recently (on Feb. 02) reserved its order for February 12 on pleas of three accused who, along with Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, are facing trial in a 1984 Sikh massacre related case, seeking transfer of the case on the ground of jurisdiction.
District Judge Rakesh Siddhartha heard the arguments afresh on the applications and fixed the matter for pronouncing order on February 12.
Earlier, the order on the pleas was reserved for January 31 by District Judge Talwant Singh, who was transferred to another court before pronouncing the verdict.
Sajjan Kumar, Brahmanand Gupta, Peeriya and Ved Prakash are facing trial on charges of killing Surjit Singh in the Sultanpuri area of West Delhi.
Gupta, Peeriya and Ved Prakash had pleaded for transfer of the case from the Karkardooma district court in East Delhi to the Rohini District Court.
Sajjan Kumar – Indian politician who is facing murder charges in an incident related to Sikh Genocide 1984
Counsel for Gupta and Peeriya had argued that the case needed to be transferred as the alleged occurrence pertained to Sultanpuri. Ved Prakash’s advocate had argued that the court should implement the Delhi High Court’s 2013 order asking sessions judges to transfer the cases as per their jurisdiction.
The CBI prosecutor, DP Singh had opposed the pleas, arguing the district judge did not have the power to transfer a case from his division to another and this power lay only with the High Court.
“This is blatantly an attempt for forum shopping,” he had argued.
The court in July 2010 had framed various charges, including murder and rioting (as defined and penalised under IPC), against Sajjan Kumar, Gupta, Peeriya, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash.
The trial court had also framed charges against the accused for the offence of spreading enmity between two communities.