New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the CBI on the bail plea of Balwan Singh Khokhar, a former Congress councilor who has been serving life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, on the ground that he feared for his life due to his advanced age and spread of novel coronavirus inside the prison.

Former MLA Mahender Yadav, a co-convict who was serving 10 years jail term at Mandoli prison here in the case, had died of COVID-19 at a private hospital in Dwarka on July 6, five days after a vacation bench of the apex court had dismissed his interim bail plea.

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A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian took note of the plea of counsel of Khokhar that he was of 70 years of age and feared for his life inside Tihar jail due to the spread of COVID-19.

Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and Khokhar are serving life imprisonment in the case after the Delhi High Court had convicted them on December 17, 2018. Yadav was awarded 10 years jail term.

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Earlier, Yadav had moved the bail plea and his counsel had said that the convict was above 70 years of age and had tested positive for COVID-19 on June 26 in Mandoli jail.

The vacation bench had said that there was not “even a whisper” about differential treatment given to Yadav due to “incarceration” and moreover, the relatives of a COVID-19 patient are not allowed to visit the ICU.

The apex court had on May 13 dismissed the interim bail plea on health grounds of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the case saying that he did not need hospitalization as per medical report at the moment.

It had also declined to entertain similar pleas of other two convicts – Yadav and Khokhar.

The regular bail plea of Sajjan Kumar will now be listed for hearing in August, it had said.

Khokhar''s life sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2018, while it had reversed the acquittal of Kumar by the trial court in 2013, in a case related to the killings of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar Part-I area in Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and burning down of a Gurdwara in Raj Nagar Part-II.

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

The high court had also upheld the conviction and varying sentences awarded by the trial court to the other five -- Khokhar, retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and former MLAs Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.

It had also convicted them for criminal conspiracy to burn down residences of Sikh families and a gurdwara in the area during the riots.

The trial court in 2013 had awarded life term to Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal, and a three-year jail term to Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.

Following the high court verdict, life term of Balwan Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal has been upheld and the sentence of Yadav and Kishan Khokar has been enhanced to 10 years in jail.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)