Agencies / Chandigarh
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal are among others who welcomed the Delhi court verdict in ’84 riots case.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh described the first death conviction by a Delhi court in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case as long overdue.
“Justice has finally been meted out to the perpetrators of the heinous crimes,” Amarinder said, while reacting to the of sentencing Yashpal Singh to death and Naresh Sherawat to life imprisonment for killing two persons in south Delhi during the riots.
Welcome the first conviction by a Delhi court in the 1984 riots case. Justice has finally been meted out to the perpetrators of the heinous crimes. Hope the others involved in the attacks are also soon brought to book for their horrendous and inhuman acts.
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) November 20, 2018
It has taken more than 30 years for the court to deliver justice in this case, the chief minister noted, adding that he hoped that the other cases would also be settled by the judiciary soon.
The chief minister also expressed hope that others involved in the attacks would also soon be brought to book for their “horrendous and inhuman acts”.
The riot cases, which left a deep scar on the national consciousness, need to be expedited and taken to their logical conclusion at the earliest, said Amarinder, who had personally visited the refugee camps to help the victims in the aftermath of the riots that had left thousands dead and lakhs homeless.
SAD patron and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal also hailed the verdict sentencing one person to death and another to life imprisonment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
In the first capital punishment in the 1984 riots cases, the Delhi court Tuesday awarded the death penalty to Yashpal Singh for killing two men in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
It also awarded life term to co-convict Naresh Sherawat in the case.
Today, the justice has been delivered to 2 culprits of #1984SikhGenocide because of the efforts of NDA govt. I thank PM @narendramodi ji for setting up SIT in 2015 & reopening the case closed by Delhi Police in 1994. We will not rest till the last murderer is brought to justice.
— Harsimrat Kaur Badal (@HarsimratBadal_) November 20, 2018
Parkash Singh Badal in a statement here said he hoped that the verdict was just a stepping stone and “this will lead to the delivery justice to thousands of other innocent victims”.
“The judgement is proof of what a change in government at the Centre can achieve in securing justice for thousands of innocent Sikhs as these cases had been closed by the previous Congress government at the Centre and had been reopened only when the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered these to be reopened at the behest of the SAD,” he said.
The former CM said the party had urged the prime minister to get the cases reopened and reinvestigated.
“Subsequently, the NDA government ordered the setting up of an SIT which reinvestigated the entire sequence of events leading to the conviction and the sentence today,” he added.
Sukhbir also expressed satisfaction at the court verdict.
The SAD president said 34 years after the mass carnage of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country, the law was finally catching up with the “genocide perpetrators”.