IANS

New Delhi, Jan 1: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday questioned the time lag before the government gave the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the go ahead to prosecute Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage.

"They (the Congress-led government) took a long time to give prosecution sanction," senior BJP leader V.K. Malhotra told IANS, a day after Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna's nod to prosecute the former Congress MP.

Malhotra said giving sanction to prosecute the accused alone did not mean that the victims got justice.

Whether the victims finally get justice can be evaluated "only after the prosecution", added the leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly.

Sajjan Kumar is accused of instigating mobs that went on the rampage killing Sikhs across Delhi in 1984 in the wake of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

The sanction was required as Kumar is a former MP. He has been charged under Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code (spreading enmity between two communities).

According to a case registered against Sajjan Kumar in 1984, he and 10 others allegedly instigated riots in Sultanpuri area of north Delhi in which 49 people were killed, CBI officials said.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram had said in the Rajya Sabha recently that the CBI had completed investigation or re-investigation of seven cases against Congress leaders -- former Delhi MP Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and late Dharam Das Shastri, who was also an MP from Delhi.

After completing the investigation, the CBI sought permission under Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) from the 'competent authority' to prosecute the accused people in four cases.