1984 Riots: Meet the Warriors Who Secured Two Life Sentences for Sajjan Kumar

'They still carry the weight of the scars on their conscience': Harinder Baweja in her new column 'Tipping Point'.

If Sajjan Kumar has once again been found guilty of murder, through a judgment delivered by Judge Kaveri Baweja on 12 February, it is largely because of the perseverance and dogged determination of HS Phoolka and Nirpreet Kaur, writes Harinder Baweja.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Have you heard of Nirpreet Kaur and HS Phoolka? They both survived the carnage in Delhi in 1984, when flesh-hungry mobs, armed with iron rods and bricks, roamed the streets of the national capital, in search of Sikhs after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her bodyguards. Both remain relentless in the pursuit for justice.

1984 is imprinted on their minds. Kaur, back then was a happy-go-lucky 16-year-old and Phoolka, now a pro bono lawyer for the victims of the violence, was awaiting the birth of a child. His landlord helped him and his wife hide in the loft, under heavy quilts, and when the mob arrived, said, “There is no Sikh family here.”

Kaur was not so blessed. She saw her father, Nirmal Singh, being burnt alive.

A 2018 image of Nirpreet Kaur whose father was killed during 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

(Photo: PTI)

The young 16-year-old, who always plaited her hair into two neat sections, had the sense to do the same for her younger brothers. The two siblings were disguised as girls so they could escape the marauding mob. Put yourself in her shoes and imagine – if you possibly can – that, 41 years later, she and Phoolka remain steadfastly focused on the quest for justice. They do so despite the many hurdles, political and legal.

The Seen and the Unseen

If Sajjan Kumar has once again been found guilty of murder, through a judgment delivered by Judge Kaveri Baweja on 12 February, it is largely because of the perseverance and dogged determination of Phoolka and Kaur. 

A file photo of HS Phoolka who has remained steadfastly focused on the quest for justice.

(Photo: IANS)

Kaur’s testimony helped secure the first life sentence awarded to Sajjan Kumar in 2018.

It was also the first time that the law had caught up with the man who led mobs in the thousands. He was the Congress MP from Outer Delhi in 1984.

The violence, that engulfed Delhi after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, changed life’s trajectory for both, Kaur and Phoolka. Before we come to how they secured the 2018 judgment, let’s focus on the life sentences awarded by the court on 24 February. Let us also attempt to answer the question of why it took a shameful four decades for the wheels of justice to move.

If the wheels stayed stuck, it was because of the sheer fear that the murderers – Sajjan Kumar in this case – continued to enjoy the patronage of the political party and the protection of the police.

The men in uniform sided not with those who had been widowed and orphaned. They stood firmly on the side of the perpetrators.

On 24 February, when the quantum of punishment was announced, the court found Sajjan Kumar guilty of killing a father and a son. Their names: Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh. Both were beaten and forced onto a vacant plot adjacent to their home in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar.

Jaswant’s wife, daughter aged 14, and niece begged and pleaded. They threw themselves atop Jaswant and Tarundeep but the mob was bloodthirsty. The wife’s ribs were broken, head injured and hand fractured because even in that moment of insanity, the mob was pulling off the gold bangle from the wife’s wrist. The young daughter and niece were injured too.

They still carry the weight of the scars on their conscience.

Soon after completing the last rites, they had tried to lodge a police complaint. The wife had even submitted an affidavit to the Ranganathan Commission of Inquiry, but the wheels of justice just didn’t move. All they had got back from Saraswati Vihar were some “fragmented bones and ashes” (as per the witness who deposed in court). The rented house had been partially burnt. The survivors had moved to a colony in South Delhi after a relative requested an army official posted as the Commandant of the President’s bodyguards to drive them to safety.

Nothing, just nothing, happened between 1984 to 2015.

A Turn of the Tide

The window of opportunity arrived in 2015 when the Union Home Ministry decided to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to reopen the 1984 carnage cases. Phoolka knew that Jaswant and Tarundeep had been burnt to death but he did not have the address of the family, who had moved to a colony in South Delhi. He tasked Kaur, his comrade, to help. 

A victim herself who burned with the zeal for justice, Kaur scoured various records. She went from office to office in search of an address. Surely the family would’ve got the compensation that all victims were given, she told herself, till one day, she stumbled upon the address she was looking for.

The three women survivors were available at the address but were not willing to speak. “They were too scared. They had been threatened into silence,” said Phoolka.

Kaur recalled how Sajjan Kumar’s aides would call her and say, “You might go to jail but there is no one who can send Sajjan Kumar to prison.”

Once again, Kaur came up with the idea of approaching one of the three women survivors, as a patient. One of them is a doctor, and I am not at liberty to disclose which one. All that the women were willing to do was give their statements in writing once again, but they were dead sure they did not want to take the witness stand. They had the medical records to prove the fractured ribs, but were unwilling to expose themselves in front of the battery of lawyers that comprised Sajjan Kumar’s legal team.

Phoolka and Kaur did not easily give up. They roped in a helpful member from Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee — and zeroed in on a family friend of the survivors. The friend is a resident of the same South Delhi Colony.

For years, the survivors refused to come forward. Equally, Phoolka and Kaur persevered, for the same number of years. Finally, in 2021, the three women agreed to appear in court but on the condition that their identities would be protected. Read the judgment and you will know that they are referred to as ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’.

They agreed finally, perhaps, because in 2018, Sajjan Kumar had to surrender after Phoolka secured the first life sentence. He was convicted for the killings of three people including Nirmal Singh, Kaur’s father, in what is called ‘the Delhi Cantt’ case.

Branded In Memory 

The memories of her father’s killing are like indelible ink and Kaur remembers every painful detail. “The mob caught hold of my father and sprinkled kerosene over him. They didn’t have a match-box, and a policeman standing there said, ‘Doob maro, tum se ek sardar bhi nahi jalta’ (Shame on you! You people can’t even kill a Sikh),” she told various commissions of enquiry. 

She stood resolute against the money and muscle power of Sajjan Kumar and his aides and reiterated the same in courts of law.

The pressure mounted on her saw her move to Punjab and in an act of desperation, she joined the All India Sikh Student’s Federation, a radical organisation. She gave her opponent’s the opening they were lying in wait for. Kaur was booked under the draconian Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and spent nine years in jail. She was charged with providing arms and shelter to Punjab’s militants but she fought back through her lawyers and was acquitted on October 24, 1996. The imprisonment fuelled her desire for justice. She returned to Delhi to pursue the legal case.

It is 41 long years since the Delhi skies billowed with smoke, but Kaur did not once falter. Four decades have passed since the stench of bodies filled the by-lanes of the capital city, but her testimony – both powerful and terrifying – stayed the same. She remained steadfast. Phoolka was by her side and together they walked the long road to justice.

“I saw Sajjan Kumar standing in a police vehicle telling the mob, ‘Ek bhi sardar zinda nahi bachna chahiye. In sardaron ko maro, inhone hamari maa ko maara hai (Don’t spare a single Sikh. Kill them, as they killed our mother)."

Nirpreet Kaur's testimony

Initially, the family went to the police but FIR number 416 didn’t yield any justice. Sajjan Kumar was never named. The eyewitnesses never made it to court and all the 10 accused were acquitted. The police, which had conspired with the rioters, were both the investigating and the prosecuting agency.

The Congress leader was acquitted by the lower court, even though the public prosecutor RS Cheema, in his concluding remarks in the session’s court, said that the riots were a conspiracy of “terrifying “proportions. Simply put, Cheema’s argument was that the men in uniform took the side of the rioters. That had been made clear by the sheer number of Sikhs who had been killed in a span of three days. All thanas, according to police rules, have to maintain a record of police movements, but the diaries for those three days were totally blank.

Nirpreet Kaur drew many blanks but remained undeterred.

The Slow March of Justice

It took another 27 years before the same daily diaries - that spoke loudly of police inaction – fell into the hands of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The diaries maintained by the police became crucial evidence when the CBI was entrusted with the task of investigating the case. 

In Raj Nagar, where Kaur’ father, Nirmal Singh was killed, there were two other eyewitnesses. That day, Jagdish Kaur witnessed the killing of her husband and son. Another witness, Jagsher Singh escaped the mob but lost three siblings who were bludgeoned to death with iron rods before being set on fire. Jagsher identified them from the watch one was wearing and the other two, from their half-burnt clothes.

Finally, in 2018, after a long wait of 34 years, they got a court verdict that awarded Sajjan Kumar a life sentence. 

I had spoken to HS Phoolka then and his reply was a telling commentary of the police’s biased role.

“Whenever it came to commissions of inquiry, Sajjan Kumar’s name appeared prominently, but whenever it went to the police, his name disappeared.”

HS Phoolka

The men in uniform had not just been complacent; they had been complicit. Kaur, who was sitting in Phoolka’s chamber, said the denial of justice was like a second stab in the heart. She explained why.

The policemen tagged over 30 deaths, including Kaur’s father Nirmal Singh’s, into a single FIR. Sajjan Kumar’s name was never put in the list of the accused and the summons for Kaur were sent to an address that never belonged to her. Is this what justice is supposed to look like?

The pressure was acute and the frequency of threats alarming. Kaur had to keep making trips to Amritsar to meet Jagdish and Jagsher to allay their fears. She took on the role of being Phoolka’s emissary and the victims finally applied for police protection. They did not trust the Delhi Police.

The CBI director finally wrote to the Punjab police chief and got them gun-toting policemen who would shadow them to court. In 2018, they could breathe easier after they secured a judgment from the court which held that the accused ‘enjoyed political patronage.’

When the wheels of justice chugged on 24 February, I called Phoolka again. He sounded pleased but wistful. “It has come after 41 years. It is only a semblance of justice because it has taken so long. It is good that Sajjan Kumar has not gone scot-free. It is a message to everyone that the law will catch up,” he said, referring to the case being heard against Jagdish Tytler, another prominent politician who was made a minister after the 1984 riots.

What about Nirpreet Kaur? I called her too. Her zeal was intact but she had a question too. “What if Sajjan Kumar gets bail on medical grounds?”

It is a question that plays on the minds of ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ too.

(Harinder Baweja is a senior journalist and author. She has been reporting on current affairs, with a particular emphasis on conflict, for the last four decades. She can be reached at @shammybaweja on Instagram and X. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)