Person
Lalit Maken
Delhi Congress MP named on a PUCL list of those accused over November 1984. He and his wife Geetanjali were shot dead on 31 July 1985; his family later asked for a convicted gunman's release.
Lalit Maken was a Delhi Congress politician and trade union leader, the son-in-law of Shankar Dayal Sharma, who later became President of India. Wikipedia says he was a metropolitan councillor and was elected to the Lok Sabha from South Delhi in 1984; the Tribune calls him a Congress MP. He was shot dead with his wife, Geetanjali, on 31 July 1985.
Key moments
- The allegation: the Tribune reported in 2009 that his name was third on a People's Union for Civil Liberties list of 227 people accused of leading or inciting the mobs that killed Sikhs in November 1984. His nephew Ajay Maken, then Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, said in February 2004 that Lalit had no part in the killings and suggested that political rivalry lay behind his murder. These are claims from the list's compilers and from his family; the sources opened report no court finding on his role.
- 31 July 1985: he was shot outside his home in Kirti Nagar as he walked to his car. Geetanjali was fatally wounded and a visitor, Balkishan, was hit. The Tribune names Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha of the Khalistan Commando Force as the gunmen; Wikipedia's account also names Ranjit Singh "Kukki" Gill, so accounts differ on who fired.
- 9 October 1992: Jinda and Sukha were hanged at Yerwada jail, Pune, after being sentenced to death for killing General Arun Vaidya. In October 2008 the SGPC honoured their families at the Golden Temple complex.
- Gill was arrested by Interpol in New Jersey on 14 May 1987, fought extradition, and was later brought back to India and given a life sentence, which the Tribune reported him serving in Tihar jail in February 2004.
- February 2004 and May 2009: Ajay Maken wrote to Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit asking her to consider Gill's case sympathetically and said the family had forgiven him. On 20 May 2009 the Delhi government's review board under Dikshit commuted Gill's sentence; Lalit Maken's daughter, Avantika (Avanti in the Tribune), said Gill should be let off.
Remembered for: his name on the PUCL list, his murder in 1985, and the forgiveness his family later showed the man convicted of it.
Sources
- Release Maken killer, says Delhi Speaker, The Tribune, 7 Feb 2004. tribuneindia.com
- SGPC honours kin of Vaidya's assassins, The Tribune, 10 Oct 2008. tribuneindia.com
- Kukki's sentence commuted, The Tribune, 20 May 2009. tribuneindia.com
- Lalit Maken, Wikipedia (used for his birth, councillor and Lok Sabha posts, the details of the shooting and Gill's arrest). en.wikipedia.org
- Sukhdev Singh Sukha, Wikipedia (used for the 1992 hanging). en.wikipedia.org