Chandigarh November 20, 2018: Former Chief Minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir SIngh Badal today welcomed the judgement of a Delhi court sentencing one of the killers of innocent Sikhs in November 1984 to death and sentencing another to life imprisonment. "This is the first blow in favour of justice and 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," said the foremr Chief Minister Mr Badal in a statement here.
It may be recalled that the present cases is among thousands of others which were closed under the Congress regime and were reopened when Mr Parkash SIngh Badal and Mr SUkhbir Singh Badal called on the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2015. The two leaders had urged the Prime Minister to get these cases reopened and reinvestigated. Subsequently, the NDA govt ordered the setting up of an SIT which reinvestigated the entire sequence of events leading to the conviction and sentence today.
"I hope this is just the stepping stone and this will lead to the delivery justice to thousands of other innocent victims. For the first time, I see a hope that the long arm of law and justice will reach powerful people like Jagish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar," said Badal in his statement.
Mr Badal thanked the NDA government at the centre especially the Prime Minister for heeding the SAD request for reopening the cases closed by the previous Congress governments, leading to the convictions and sentence of today.
SUKHBIR CALLS FIRST POSTIVE DEVELOPMENT IN 34 YEARS
In his first reaction. the SAD president Sukhbir SIngh Badal described the judgement "as the first really positive development in the past nearly 34 years and said that the Sikh community will feel some relief and confidence that they can get justice in this country. Sukhbir Singh further said that this judgement should become a precedent for similar cases being tried after the NDA government had ordered the reopening of the cases closed by the successive Congress
government.
He said that the Sikhs can now have some hope that men like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler will not go scott-free." I hope that this will open the gates for justice for thousands of others who had been denied justice because of the stonewalling tactics of the previous Congress governments at the centre," said Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal.