Court rejects bail application of 1984 anti-Sikh riots accused

Kanpur: Additional sessions judge Vikas Goyal on Friday rejected the bail application of Uma Shankar Yadav, a resident of Safipur Unnao who has been charged by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for murder and setting the house on fire during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The court observed in its order that the victims and the eyewitnesses had identified the accused Uma Shankar Yadav and named him in their statements. In view of the seriousness of the charges and considering all other facts and circumstances, there were no appropriate grounds for granting him bail. Therefore, the bail application of accused Uma Shankar Yadav was being dismissed, the court observed. According to ADGC Sanjay Jha, the incident had taken place in Armapur Estate on November 2,1984 where a huge crowd of around 200 people raided the house of one Wazir Singh, a Defence employee. It had forced its entry into the house of Wazir Singh and killed him and his son Satnam Singh alias Simmi. The raiders poured petrol on furniture and household goods and set them on fire.
Manjeet, son of the victim's family in his statement to the SIT team had narrated the name of accused Uma Shankar Yadav and others. He stated that Uma Shankar and some others used to reside in Armapur Estate. Since his father was a Defence employee, he knew few of them including Uma Shankar. One another eyewitness too had identified Uma Shankar Yadav and stated that when the intruders had set the house on fire and killed two male Sikhs, Mohan Dubey, Brajesh Dubey, Uma Shankar Yadav, Rajendra Kumar Jaiswal and Anil Gupta were present on the spot.
Uma Shankar Yadav, 67, claimed that he was not involved in any crime and on the stated dates he was on duty in the Ordnance Factory. Jha stated that since the witness and the victim both had identified the accused during the crime, the court considered this fact and dismissed the bail application of accused Uma Shankar Yadav.