Late Sajjan Kumar was by no means alone nor was his future his personal.
It was intertwined with the lives of individuals whose households had been wrecked by the blood lust of the mobs he incited on the peak of 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Whereas Kumar, 80, has handed, many survivors of the communal carnage proceed to relive the horrors of these darkish days until the final breath of their lives.
One such survivor is the Amritsar primarily based Jagdish Kaur who spoke to The Tribune about her ache and despair.
Associated information: Haunted by ghosts of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, ex-Congress MP Sajjan Kumar dies
It was her chilling testimony within the homicide case towards Sajjan Kumar that led to his first ever conviction within the riots.
It was on December 17, 2018, that the Delhi Excessive Courtroom overturned a trial courtroom acquittal of the previous Congress MP who was charged with the homicide of Jagdish Kaur’s husband, her 18-year-old son and her three cousins.
The case famously got here to be known as the Delhi Palam Colony Raj Nagar homicide case.
Kaur remembers the courtroom testimony she gave — the assertion that led the Excessive Courtroom to order the primary conviction of a excessive profile Congress politician in a matter through which ex-minister Kamal Nath and ex-MP Jagdish Tytler had been additionally embroiled although nothing was ever confirmed towards them.
“The struggle has been very excruciating. The system tried to interrupt me a number of instances. I used to be provided Rs eight crore, a plot and a resettlement overseas in lieu of withdrawing the case towards Sajjan Kumar. However I informed all of them that I’m a Sardarni and I concern nobody,” Jagdish Kaur says a day after Sajjan Kumar died a damaged and lonely man serving his life sentence at Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
The testimony of Jagdish Kaur additionally proved the complicity of Delhi police within the murders.
The Delhi HC judgment information this truth within the case of murders of 5 members of Jagdish Kaur’s household in Raj Nagar on November 1, 2, 1984.
The judgment information: “At round 9 am on November 2, 1984, when Jagdish Kaur went to lodge a report on the police put up, she noticed {that a} public assembly was happening which was attended by Sajjan Kumar who was the native MP. She heard him declare Sikh sala ek nahin bachna chahiye, jo Hindu bhai unko sharan deta hai, uska ghar bhi jala do aur unko bhi maro. She said that she additionally heard the officer-in-charge of the police put up ask mobsters “kitne murge bhun diye”.
The judgment provides: “At this level Jagdish Kaur mentioned that she had misplaced religion in humanity”.
Chatting with The Tribune on Friday, Kaur mentioned she persevered together with her battle for justice and did all it took.
“I did odd jobs to boost my youngsters and continued to struggle for justice with dignity,” says the lady, her eyes nonetheless weary from years of anguish and battle even because the perpetrator has now gone.
