Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal today appealed to the union government to immediately release Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victims of the 1984 anti Sikh riots as had been decided one month back. In a statement issued here, Mrs. Badal said that she had met Union Home minister Rajnath Singh thrice in the last two months to press for this demand as the entire Sikh community had welcomed the announcement of the compensation and wanted it to be distributed amongst the victims at the earliest. "I have urged the Home minister to expedite the implementation of this decision besides taking the next series of steps to ensure justice to the victims of the 1984 carnage and bring closure to their sufferings".The Union minister said now that voting process had been completed in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Jharkhand, the time was appropriate to disperse the compensation before the election commission announced code of conduct for Delhi polls.
Meanwhile, Mrs Badal also demanded daily hearing of cases to expedite justice for Delhi riot victims. She said successive Congress governments at the centre had deliberately created obstacles to ensure the kingpins of the 1984 carnage could not be brought to book. Besides day to day hearing of all cases, she also demanded action against Congress leader Sajjar Kumar for his involvement in the Nangloi case. She said in 1991, the police registered FIR No. 418/91 at Nangloi against Sajjan Kumar on the recommendations of the Jain-Aggarwal Committee and during investigation, his name appeared prominently in the statements of the witnesses, but the Delhi police gave a clean chit to him under pressure from the Congress and later filed a chargesheet in 1995 against other accused. “Delhi Police prepared a chargesheet against Sajjan Kumar for the murder of four Sikhs and the same was signed by the Inspector and the ACP.
The charge sheet also recorded that he was not arrested due to a law and order problem and the court may summon him. This chargesheet has not been filed in the court till date” she added.Referring to a recent sting operation, Mrs Badal said it was revealed that various SHOs of the worst hit areas in Delhi admitted that they had failed to act as a force and even acted in connivance with the then Congress government to give a free run to those who murdered and even burnt Sikhs alive. She said a separate inquiry should be constituted to probe the police- politician nexus in the riots.