Supreme Court Denies Bail Out to Convicted COVID-19 in the 1984 Riots Case (Representative)
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea for provisional release of a convict for a 1984 anti-Sikh riot, undergoing treatment in the ICU here after being tested positive for COVID-19, and said he did there was not “even a whisper” about the differential treatment he was given because of “incarceration”.
A bench of vacation judges Indira Banerjee and B R Gavai, conducting a hearing by videoconference, denied bail to former MP Mahender Yadav, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence in this case.
Describing the “unfortunate” as infection and hospitalization of Mr. Yadav, the district court took note of the government’s observations and said: “We are informed that he is in serious condition. hospitalized and in the intensive care unit, everything possible is done to treat the petitioner. “
He observed that the relatives of a COVID-19 patient were not allowed to go to the intensive care unit and, furthermore, no allegations of differential treatment due to incarceration.
“There is not even a whisper in the petition that differential treatment is given to the patient or his relatives due to the imprisonment of the petitioner (Yadav). The request cannot therefore be granted …” said in his order.
In addition to Mr. Yadav, former Congressman Sajjan Kumar and former Congressman Balwan Khokhar are serving life sentences in the case after the Delhi High Court convicted them on December 17, 2018.
Yadav’s lawyer said the convict was over 70 years old and tested positive for COVID-19 on June 26 in Mandoli prison, where another convict, who shared the barracks with him, recently died of deadly disease.
“I do not think that we can receive this petition in the absence of allegation or specific complaint concerning the treatment and common rules must also be followed … nowhere relatives of a patient are allowed to visit” , said Judge Banerjee.
Senior counsel H S Phoolka appeared for the victims of the riots and opposed Yadav’s plea for provisional release.
On May 13, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea for bail for health reasons of former Congressman Sajjan Kumar in the case, saying that he did not need to be hospitalized for the moment.
He had refused to receive similar pleas from two other convicts – MM. Yadav and Khokhar. Sajjan Kumar’s regular bail plead will now be scheduled for hearing in August, he said.
Mr. Khokhar’s life sentence was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in 2018, after it quashed Mr. Kumar’s acquittal by the trial court in 2013 in a case related to the murders of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar Part-I area at Palam Colony in south-west Delhi on November 1 and 2, 1984, and a Gurdwara fire in Raj Nagar Part II.
Riots broke out after the assassination of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.
The high court also confirmed the sentencing and varying sentences handed down by the trial court against the other five – Khokhar, retired ship captain, Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former MLender Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar .
He had also convicted them of a criminal conspiracy to burn down residences of Sikh families and a gurdwara in the region during the riots.
In 2013, the trial court granted a life sentence to Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal and a three-year prison sentence to Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.
Following the High Court’s verdict, the life sentence of Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal was confirmed and the sentence of Yadav and Kishan Khokar was increased to 10 years in prison.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
