Six awarded RI for cheating 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims

NEW DELHI: Six persons were awarded rigorous imprisonment (RI) for varying terms by a city court for misappropriation of funds meant for the 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims.

Special Judge Vinod Goel, yesterday sentenced Surinder Singh Zaidi, a Junior Management Officer in the State Bank of India to five years' RI and a fine of Rs 55,000, after holding him guilty for cheating, forgery, using forged document and under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court also sentenced Zaidi's four close associates, Ravinder Sharma and his three sons - Ashwani Sharma, Praveen Sharma and Prithvi Raj Sharma - to five years' RI and imposed a fine of Rs 22,000, Rs 9,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 8,000 on them respectively.

The court also sentenced Hemchand Sharma, an accountant, to three-and-half-years' RI and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000.

"The fact of this case leads me to remember the sad days of 1984 when our then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her bodyguards and thereafter riots took place across the country and thousands of innocent people were killed," the judge said in his 95-page judgement.

"In Delhi, the government had awarded a compensation of Rs 20,000 to the relatives of the victims. But, instead of showing sympathy to the widows of the riot victims of 1984, the convicts have added insult to their injuries and fuel to the fire," the judge said.

The prosecution claimed that Zaidi and Hemchand, working in the SBI Gazipur branch in 1988, along with some officials from the relief cell of Deputy Commissioner, Delhi, cheated the riot victims.

The six allegedly opened three fictitious accounts in the SBI Gazipur branch in the joint name of the beneficiaries and deposited six cheques worth Rs 70,000 and withdrew the amount from it.

The prosecution produced 36 witnesses, including senior personnel of the Deputy Commissioner's office, in the trial which took place for almost 20 years.

The court framed charges against them on September 12.

They allgedly opened three fictitious accounts in the SBI Gazipur branch in the joint name of the beneficiaries and thereafter deposited these six cheques in the account and have withdrawan the amount from it.

The prosecution produced 36 witnesses including top brass of the Deputy Commissioner office to prove its case against the six accused, after a trial which spanned for almost 20 years. The court had on September 12, 2005, framed charges against them.