Court raps CBI, issues fresh NBW against Sajjan

New Delhi: A city court on Tuesday issued fresh non-bailable warrants against Sajjan Kumar and others as they did not appear at the court to answer charges of their alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar issued the warrants, asking Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and others to appear in court on March 10.

The court asked the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure that Sajjan Kumar and others are present in court that day.

During the proceedings, the CBI counsel said the bureau had conducted four raids at different places to nab the accused, including Sajjan Kumar, but failed to nab any of them except Girdhari Lal.

He is an accused in a riot case at Delhi Cantonment, and has been arrested.

Hearing this, the court pulled up the CBI, saying the bureau was not working properly.

"Is this the manner in which the premier investigating agency is working? Why were the efforts not made in the night hours when there was a high probability of accused being present in their homes? It seems that CBI is not interested in investigating the matter," the court said.

Refuting CBI's remarks that accused were absconding, senior advocate I.U. Khan, appearing for Sajjan Kumar, said: "We are not absconding. I am not concealing any of the facts and only waiting for the Delhi High Court order on the bail plea of my client and others."

The court dismissed the application made on behalf of the accused for exemption of personal appearance, stating: "The court will not work at the mercy of the accused. At present the accused persons are abusing their rights."

However, there was some relief for Sajjan Kumar when the judge accepted the closure report filed in another case during the riots -- a case in Mongolpuri, northwest Delhi -- as the victim Harbinder Kaur failed to appear in court.

The bureau is probing cases related to the riots during which over 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone in the aftermath of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.