The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a temporary stay on the trial of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case till the Delhi high court hears his petition for examination of particular witnesses. The high court has fixed the hearing for July 27.
A bench, headed by Justice P, Sathasivam, directed the trial judge not to proceed further till July 27 when the high court takes up Kumar’s plea for allowing him to cross-examine those witnesses whose statements before various commissions were being used by the CBI against him.
Kumar had challenged the use of statements given before another forum in the trial against the provisions of the Evidence Act.
Since the high court had not given any stay on the trial, Kumar’s counsel alleged that the trial proceedings would be vitiated if the HC later gives contrary findings.
However, the CBI counsel opposed his petition describing it only as an attempt of “delaying” the trial while the case had made significant progress.
The apex court gave him temporary relief considering the fact that the high court had though admitted his petition but had not given any verdict.
Kumar has appealed in the HC that the CBI was using the statements of witnesses given before the G.T. Nanavati and Ranganath Mishra Commissions, in the trial against him.
Since many witnesses had changed their statements before the commissions from what they had given to the police earlier, the same could not be held as reliable, he pleaded. He had main objection to the testimony of Jagdish Kaur, whose family members were killed in the riot in west Delhi and she had alleged that Sajjan Kumar had instigated the mob to kill Sikhs.