Delhi HC rejects Sajjan Kumar's plea seeking more time to surrender

Earlier, Kumar had sought 30 days to surrender.

The Delhi High Court on Monday convicted the 71-year-old then Congress leader and sentenced to jail "for the remainder of his natural life" in the case, annulling his acquittal by a lower court earlier. The court is expected to hear his plea on Friday.

According to reports, Kumar had told the court that he had three children and eight grandchildren and needed the time to settle matters related to his property.

The court had given him till Dec 31 to surrender and fined him Rs 1 lakh. He is also not allowed to leave the national capital.

A day after getting convicted in the 1984 anti-Sikh riot case, the Congress leader had resigned from his party's primary membership.

Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, nationwide riots had broken out. In one incident five people were killed in the Delhi Cantonment area.

While Kumar was earlier acquitted, five others were convicted in that case related to the riot.

Interestingly, one of the lawyers who defended Sajjan Kumar and other accused in the riots is senior advocate Amit Sibal, son of Congress leader Kapil Sibal.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had also received severe criticism after the riots when he had infamously remarked that 'Jab koi bada ped girta hai to dharti hilti hai' (when a big tree is uprooted, the earth also shakes), almost justifying the anti-Sikh riots in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination.