The Supreme Court has directed CBI to verify the medical condition of the Ex-Congress leader Sajjan Kumar who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and who has sought interim bail from the Court on medical grounds.

The division bench of Justices SK Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy has also directed the investigating agency to file an affidavit by September 6, 2021, after verifying the health condition of Sajjan Kumar.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appearing for Sajjan Kumar said that Kumar should be taken to a private hospital for treatment as his condition had not been determined at a government hospital.

Sajjan Kumar was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the High Court in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. He was charged with the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar I in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down a Gurudwara in Raj Nagar Part II during the same time phase.

The riots took place after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.

The High Court had reversed the judgment of the trial Court in 2013 and convicted Sajjan Kumar on December 17, 2018, and sentenced to imprisonment for 'remainder of his natural life' in the case holding the riots 'crime against humanity.'

The former Congress leader was previously refused interim bail on September 4, 2020, by a bench of former Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna & V. Ramasubramanian in the anti-Sikh riots case. Also, on May 13, 2020, the Court had denied granting interim bail to Kumar asserting that there was no reason for hospitalization mentioned in the medical report submitted by the AIIMS board.

(With inputs from PTI)