NEW DELHI – An Indian court Tuesday handed down the first death sentenceover anti-Sikh riots in 1984 that left nearly 3,000 dead following theassassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Relatives of victims rejoiced in the capital New Delhi after the judgeannounced the verdict, the first since a Special Investigation Team tookover the probe in 2015.
The 1984 carnage erupted just hours after then-premier Gandhi was killed byher Sikh bodyguards.
It lasted three days with Sikhs raped and murdered, their homes andbusinesses torched.
The violence across the country but mostly in New Delhi saw people draggedfrom their homes and burned alive.
Few have been brought to justice over the massacre, withgovernment-appointed commissions in the past failing to prosecute more thana handful of minor cases.
Gandhi was shot dead after ordering Indian troops to storm the GoldenTemple, Sikhism s holiest shrine in the northern state of Punjab.
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The operation was to flush out separatists from the minority faith holed upinside.
Sikh leaders say the death toll from the pogrom that followed far exceededthe official figure of nearly 3,000, and accuse leaders of Gandhi sCongress party of fanning the violence.
India s top investigating agency had blamed senior Congress leader SajjanKumar for inciting the mobs, but he was acquitted by a court in 2013.
Sikhs in India make up around 20 million people, a little under two percentof India s population of 1.25 billion people. Worldwide they number around27 million. – APP/AFP
