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A Delhi court on Friday reserved for February 25 its order on the quantum of sentence against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a murder case relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Appearing before special judge Kaveri Baweja, the complainant, whose husband and son were killed by a mob allegedly instigated by Kumar, sought the maximum punishment of death penalty for him.
"The accused being the leader of the mobs instigated others to commit a genocide and crime against humanity and cold-blooded murders, and he deserves nothing less than capital punishment," submitted senior advocate H S Phoolka, representing the complainant.
Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh were killed on November 1, 1984.
Kumar was convicted by the Delhi high court for five murders in Delhi Cantonment's Raj Nagar area in another case related to the riots aside for the murders in the present case, argued Phoolka while claiming that the seven murders were part of a genocide.
Kumar, said Phoolka, was leading a mob that killed the two men and person who led and instigated others to kill people in cold blood "deserves higher punishment".
He said that Kumar was awarded life imprisonment in the Raj Nagar case, but now he deserved a death sentence.
The prosecution had also sought capital punishment for the former Congress MP.
The court asked the counsel appearing for Kumar to file his written submissions within two days.
"Put up for order on the quantum of sentence on the next date of hearing," said the judge.
The court on February 12 convicted Kumar for the offence and on Friday it sought a report from Tihar central jail on his psychiatric and psychological evaluation in view of a Supreme Court order asking for such a report in cases attracting capital punishment.
Kumar is currently lodged in Tihar jail.
The minimum punishment for murder is life imprisonment whereas the maximum is death penalty.
Though Punjabi Bagh Police Station registered the case, a special investigation team took over the investigation much later.
The prosecution alleged a huge mob, armed with deadly weapons, resorted to large-scale looting, arson and destruction of properties of Sikhs to avenge the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The mob attacked the house of the complainant, wife of Jaswant, killing the men aside from looting articles and setting their house ablaze, the prosecution claimed.
According to a report of the Nanavati Commission, constituted to probe the violence and its aftermath, there were 587 FIRs filed in Delhi in relation to the riots that saw killings of 2,733 people. Of the total, about 240 FIRs were closed by police as "untraced" and 250 cases resulted in acquittal.
Only 28 cases of 587 FIRs resulted in convictions, in which about 400 persons were convicted. Of the total, 50, including Kumar, were convicted for murder.
Kumar, an influential Congress leader and an MP at the time, was accused in a case over the killings of five persons in Delhi's Palam Colony on November 1 and 2 in 1984. He was awarded life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in the case and his appeal challenging the punishment is pending before the Supreme Court.