'84 riots case: Witness deposes on killing of husband, son

A woman witness, who lost five relatives in 1984 anti-Sikh riots allegedly involving Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, today related before a Delhi court how a mob killed her husband and son during the carnage.

"The mob armed with iron rod, digging tools and other lethal weapons first pounced upon my son causing injuries to him and then upon my husband virtually crushing his head while dragging him to the room where he dropped dead," Jagdish Kaur, the witness, told additional sessions judge Sunita Gupta.

She reiterated the statement given to CBI during the probe in the riots case.

"My son ran for some distance in the street, where he was attacked by the mob again, caused injuries and set on fire,"
the witness alleged during her cross examination by SA
Hashmi, counsel for accused Balwan Khokhar.

She also said she had recorded her statement before a magistrate in an Amritsar court in Punjab in December, 2008,
in which she alleged the mob had attacked her house, broke
open all the doors, attacked her husband with iron rods and
killed him and set afire her son by pouring kerosene.

The woman resumed her deposition before the court here
under medical supervision after remaining indisposed due to
high blood pressure for several days.

During her over two-hour cross examination by counsel Hashmi, the witness denied she had made any statement before Delhi police's riot cell on December 31, 1991, or on January 20, 1985.

"I did not state that I was not aware of the incident on November 2, 1984, in which Narender Singh, Raghuvinder and Kuldeep were killed and I had not witnessed the incident with my own eyes.

"It is incorrect to suggest that I have been tutored today to depose, that I have not made any statement on December 31, 1991 and that I was asked to disown the statement made to the police," she said.

The counsel for Kumar, the former outer Delhi MP, and other accused had claimed the statement of Kaur should not be believed as she did not appear before a different Delhi court
despite several warrants.

They said a case FIR no 416/84, registered on the basis of her complaint, was declared 'untraced' by the court on July 31, 2008.

The cross-examination of Kaur remained inconclusive and is
likely to continue tomorrow.

Kumar and others are facing the trial for criminal conspiracy, murder and other offences in the case relating to the killing of five persons at Delhi Cantonment area during the riots.