Justice Sanjiv Khanna refuses to hear Sajjan Kumar's bail plea

New Delhi, Feb 25: Justice Sanjiv Khanna of the Supreme Court bench Monday refused to hear the bail application of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 Anti-Sikh riots case. Now the matter will be listed before another bench of the Supreme Court for a detailed hearing in the case.

The 73-year former Congress leader has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the conviction.

Sajjan Kumar surrendered before the Delhi High Court on December 31, 2018, to serve the life sentence awarded to him by the court in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. He surrendered before Metropolitan Magistrate Aditi Garg who directed that Kumar be lodged in Mandoli jail in northeast Delhi.

The court had rejected Kumar's petition to be lodged in the high-security Tihar jail, but allowed his plea for security and directed the police to take him to the prison in a separate vehicle.

The case in which Sajjan Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar Part-I area of southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984 and the burning down of a gurudwara.

The riots broke out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.

(With PTI inputs)