Justice after 34 years
A Delhi court on Tuesday awarded death penalty to convict Yashpal Singh for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and sentenced another convict, Naresh Sehrawat, to life imprisonment.

The victims
Thirty four years ago, two young Sikh men were killed by a mob in Mahipalpur village in south Delhi. The two men who lost their lives on November 1, 1984, were Hardev Singh, who was then 24 years old, and Avtar Singh, 26.

Relatives of victims rejoiced in the capital New Delhi after the judge announced the verdict, the first since a Special Investigation Team took over the probe in 2015.

The verdict was pronounced inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail due to security concerns and attack on the convicts on the premises of the Delhi court.

The carnage
The 1984 carnage erupted just hours after then prime minister Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards.

It lasted three days with Sikhs raped and murdered, their homes and businesses torched.

The violence across the country but mostly in New Delhi saw people dragged from their homes and burned alive.

Few have been brought to justice over the massacre, with government-appointed commissions in the past failing to prosecute more than a handful of minor cases.

An aftermath
Gandhi was shot dead after ordering Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine in the northern state of Punjab.

Charred
The operation was to flush out separatists from the minority faith holed up inside.

Sikh leaders say the death toll from the pogrom that followed far exceeded the official figure of 3,000, and accuse leaders of Gandhi’s Congress party of fanning the violence.

The accused
It was an eyewitness testimony that proved crucial in the conviction of the duo accused of killing two Sikh men during the 1984 riots in the national capital.

Both accused were also convicted of dacoity, attempt to murder and other serious charges for they attacked the victims with a common intention and burnt their business establishments.

Courtesy By :-  The Economic Times