Balwan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal - held guilty for murder by District and Sessions Judge J R Aryan -- have been given life terms. The CBI had  sought the death sentence for three of the five convicts in an anti-Sikh riots case as it told a Delhi court that they were engaged in "planned communal riot" and "religious cleansing". Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted in the same case.

A Delhi court heard the arguments on quantum of punishment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted while five persons were convicted for being a part of the mob that killed five Sikhs here.

District Judge JR Aryan, who was scheduled to hear the arguments on point of sentence in the case on May 6, deferred the matter for May 9 after CBI prosecutor, senior advocate R S Cheema, expressed his inability to appear before it on the earlier date.

Two others Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokkar get a three year jail term