A key witness, who lost five of her family members in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi, on Saturday identified senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar as the person who had instigated the mob during the carnage.
Jagdish Kaur, the witness who was cross-examined on Saturday by the defence counsel before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta, also identified Sajjan's nephew Balwant Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal as accomplices.
The defence counsel, who started cross-examining Kaur after the recording of her statements was completed, pointed out several inconsistencies in the riot victim's testimonies before various authorities from time to time.
However, Kaur refuted the allegation of being inconsistent, saying she had made the same statements before all authorities, be it the Nanavati Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation or the magistrate in Punjab.
"They (authorities) said that they would take only those statements on record which are found relevant," she said.
The cross-examination of the witness will continue on Monday.
Kaur had on Friday accused the police of siding with the rioters in 1984 and turning a blind eye to the riots. She lost five family members, including her husband, in the riots that had followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The court had on May 28 framed charges of murder and spreading enmity between two communities against Kumar in the riots case, saying there are sufficient grounds for presuming that the violence was due to a 'well-planned conspiracy' in Delhi Cantonment area.
The CBI had filed two chargesheets against Kumar and others on January 13 in the riots cases registered in 2005 on the recommendation of Justice G T Nanavati Commission which inquired into the sequence of events leading to the riots.
The court began the recording of statements of prosecution witnesses in the Delhi Cantonment area case.
In a separate case, the same court had decided to frame charges against the leader and others on July 5 in connection with the killing of six persons at Sultanpuri area in north-west Delhi.
