The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to submit a medical report on the health of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, PTI reported. Kumar is currently serving a life sentence in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riot case.

The top court sought the report within four weeks from the AIIMS medical panel that would be examining Kumar. The court had agreed on Monday to hear the urgent listing of his bail plea, citing health reasons.

A bench, led by chief justice-designate SA Bobde, said it would hear the bail application during summer vacation next year.

“He has lost eight to nine kg weight,” senior lawyer Vikas Singh, representing Kumar, told the court. To this, the court asked if the former Congress leader should be examined. “We are taking care of your health,” Bobde said, according to Live Law. “What more do you want? Wherever you are, you should be healthy.”

Bobde noted that losing weight was not an illness, according to NDTV.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave said the case was a “sad commentary on the nation” and said “the prosecution for 30 years sided with these culprits”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation in April had opposed the 73-year-old’s plea, saying that he was responsible for the “gruesome” massacre of Sikhs and described it as genocide.

The Delhi High Court in December 2018 had sentenced Kumar to life imprisonment, and held him guilty of murder, promoting enmity between groups, and defiling public property. The High Court verdict had reversed a lower court’s 2013 ruling that had acquitted Kumar. He was sent to jail after he surrendered before a trial court on December 31. Kumar resigned from the Congress after his conviction.

On October 31, 1984, anti-Sikh riots broke out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards.

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