Riot victim puts up poster outside Deepender Hooda’s residence for remarks on Sajjan Kumar’s death

New Delhi, Aug 21 (SocialNews.XYZ) Nirpreet Kaur, a victim of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, on Friday, put up a poster outside Congress MP Deepender Hooda's residence in the national Capital after the latter termed party leader Sajjan Kumar's death as an "irreplaceable loss".

The poster read: "IF SAJJAN KUMAR IS ROLL MODEL THEN WHO ARE CULPRIT..SHAME ON YOU DEEPENDER HOODA."

Sajjan Kumar, who was serving life imprisonment in connection with cases arising from the 1984 riots, died on Thursday at a Delhi hospital. The riots had erupted after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards.

A controversy erupted after Deepender Hooda termed Kumar's death as "irreparable loss for the country's political horizon" while speaking to reporters on Thursday.

"Sajjan Kumar was not only a prominent figure in Delhi and rural Delhi but across North India. His connection with the people was exemplary, and he is cited as an example across our country," he added.

Nirpreet Kaur was just 16 when she saw her father being burnt alive by a frenzied mob near a gurdwara, where he was the head priest, in Delhi's Raj Nagar on the morning of November 1, 1984, NDTV reported.

Speaking to reporters outside the Delhi High Court in 2018, after Sajjan Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment, Kaur had said: "I have got justice after 34 years... He (Sajjan Kumar) will go to jail."

Earlier in the day, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and family members of those killed during the riots also lashed out at the Congress MP, asking him to be "ashamed" of his remark.

SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said: "I condemn this statement. Deepender Hooda and the Congress Party should apologise...Will Deepender Hooda continue to be a part of the party (after this remark) and if he continues so, then I will consider it the mindset of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi."

"Sikhs should now realise what is the Congress party's stance on the (1984) genocide," Majithia told IANS.

The family member of a victim who identified himself as Surjit Singh, said seven members of his family were burnt alive during the 1984 riots.

"It is very unfortunate that Deepender Hooda is siding a criminal. He should be ashamed for praising a person who is responsible for the massacre of so many people," he told IANS.

Source: IANS