First Death Sentence In 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots Case, One Life Term
NEW DELHI, Nov 20: One of the two attackers convicted of killing two men during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 has been sentenced to death by a Delhi court. The other convict will spend life in prison, the court said today.
Naresh Sherawat, 68, and 55-year-old Yashpal Singh were convicted of killing the two men in south Delhi's Mahipalpur. They have also been fined Rs. 35 lakh each.
Yashpal Singh's sentence makes it the first death punishment in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Sherawat, the second person to get life imprisonment in 34 years, worked at the Mahipalpur post office and Yashpal Singh was a transporter.
The verdict has given "Sikhs a ray of hope", said Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also welcomed the first conviction by a Delhi court in the 1984 riots case. "Justice has finally been meted out to the perpetrators of the heinous crimes. Hope the others involved in the attacks are also soon brought to book for their horrendous and inhuman acts," Captain Singh tweeted.
On November 1, 1984, Hardev Singh and two others were at their grocery shops in Mahipalpur when a mob of 800-1,000 armed with iron rods, hockey sticks, stones, kerosene oil attacked them and set their shops on fire.
They rushed to their friend Surjit Singh's home and locked themselves inside. They were later joined by Avtar Singh. The mob followed them to the house, stabbed Hardev and threw all them from the balcony. The injured were shifted to Safdarjung Hospital where Avtar Singh and Hardev Singh died.
The Delhi Police had closed the case in 1994 for lack of evidence.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, formed in 2015, probed the 60 cases it had reopened out of the total 293, and succeeded in getting conviction in the first case last week.
It has filed "untraced report" in 52 cases and of the eight cases being investigated, charge-sheets have been filed in five while the rest, in which senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar is an accused, are pending investigation.
Both the men were arrested after the court held them guilty of murder, attempt to murder, dacoity and voluntarily causing hurt.
The official records say that over 2,800 Sikhs were killed across India after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguard. The violence across the country, but mostly in Delhi, saw women being raped and people dragged out of their homes to be burnt alive.
Courtesy: www.ndtv.com
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EC demands extra security as unrest grips Bangladesh afresh
Dhaka (PTI): The Election Commission (EC) has demanded extra security for its chief, other commissioners and officials as fresh unrest visibly gripped Bangladesh after gunmen shot an upcoming parliamentary polls candidate and frontline leader of last year's violent street movement dubbed 'July Uprising'.
"The EC has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) urging comprehensive security arrangements for the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Election Commissioners (ECs), senior officials of the Election Commission Secretariat," the state-run BSS news agency reported on late Saturday.
The EC simultaneously sought the extra security for its field-level offices ahead of the 13th national election, as two of them came under attack in southeastern Lakshmipur and southwestern Pirojpur by unidentified miscreants after the announcement of the schedule for the upcoming polls on Thursday.
The commission demanded an additional escort vehicle for the CEC, while one such police escort with a vehicle was currently in place for him. It asked for round-the-clock police escorts for the four commissioners and the senior secretary.
The letter said the enhanced security measures were "urgent and necessary," while EC officials said their 10 regional offices, 64 district election offices and 522 sub-district level offices would store important documents and election materials.
The EC on Thursday said the upcoming parliamentary election would be held on February 12 next year, while a day later, Sharif Osman Hadi was shot from a close range in the head, critically wounding him, as he initiated his election campaign from a constituency in the capital.
Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) simultaneously asked Muhammad Yunus' government to provide security for all candidates in the upcoming election after the attack on Hadi, who leads a radical right-wing cultural group called Inquiab Mancha.
"We demand that the real culprit be identified immediately and brought under the law, and we call upon this government to ensure the security of all candidates without delay," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.
Hadi was also a frontline leader of last year's student-led violent uprising that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
His Inquilab Mancha was also at the forefront of a campaign to disband the Awami League, which the interim government complied with in May this year, disqualifying the party from contesting the polls.
The government on Saturday ordered a nationwide security clampdown called 'Operation Devil Hunt 2' amid escalated fears over the law and order situation and promised to issue firearms licenses for election candidates for their own security.
Home adviser (retd) Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the government had taken steps to ensure special security for the "frontline fighters" of the July Uprising and promised to issue firearms licenses for the election candidates.
He emphasised that the second phase of the 'Devil Hunt' was aimed at helping ensure public safety and combat the growing threat of illegal arms.
The operation was initially launched in February this year following protests over an attack on the private house of a former minister of the ousted government in the northern suburb of the capital, when it targeted alleged "henchmen" and supporters of the now disbanded Awami League.
