Delhi HC denies bail to 1984 anti-Sikh riots case convict

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of one of the three convicts serving life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Ashutosh Kumar refused bail to Girdhari Lal, who was held guilty along with two others, in a case related to the murder of five members of a family in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. [caption id=“attachment_1551179” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Delhi High Court. Reuters[/caption] “We have to deal with the appeals related to death of five persons here, so we need to go through the evidence throughly, we will not give bail at this stage,” it said. The court’s observation came while hearing the bail pleas of Girdhari Lal and ex-councillor Balwan Khokar who have also challenged their conviction and award of life sentence by the trial court in May last year. The court, meanwhile, posted the hearing on the bail plea of Khokar for April 22 after it was informed by the convict’s counsel that his client fell in the jail on Sunday (April 12) and broke his hand. “He (Balwan Khokar) is 54 per cent disabled and the incident in question reflects that he cannot take care of himself and requires help. “Tihar jail Medical Superintendent is directed to submit report on whether any incident had occurred on that day or not. He will also give a medical report,” the court said. The trial court had acquitted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the case but awarded life term to retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Balwan Khokhar and Girdhari Lal. The court had also awarded three years imprisonment to two others, former MLA Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar. The high court had in September 2013 denied bail to Captain Bhagmal. The convicts have filed their appeals before the High Court while Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also filed its appeal demanding death sentence for the trio, saying they were engaged in “a planned communal riot” and “religious cleansing”. PTI