New Delhi, Human rights activist and advocate H.S. Phoolka on Wednesday welcomed Delhi High Court upholding the trial court verdict convicting 89 people of rioting and burning houses during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the city, saying the decision was a message to the country that law catches up with everyone.
“This is a message to the whole country that law will catch up with you. And law now has caught up with these people (89 convicted),” Phoolka said.
Justice R.K. Gauba on Wednesday dismissed appeals of the convicts who had challenged an August 27, 1996 judgement of a sessions court which had convicted these 89 people. The trial court in its 1996 judgement had acquitted five of the total 94 accused who had been put on trial.
The convicted were among the 107 arrested from Trilokpuri area during the ant-Sikh riots which broke out across the city after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was gunned down by her own bodyguards, who were Sikhs.
Phoolka said though all the convicted were “Congress workers”, the case against Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar is reserved in Delhi High Court. He said he is expecting a judgement in the Kumar case in “one or two weeks”.
Phoolka, a Delhi High Court lawyer, is representing victims of 1984-riots in other cases.