It was due to the patronage given by Gandhi family to the perpetrators of 1984 anti-Sikh riots that justice was derailed, Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal said on Monday.

Launching a scathing attack on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi soon after the conviction of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Badal said: "Look at the extent of patronage where one accused is being sworn in as Chief Minister, the other accused is being given life sentence by the court."

"This is the extent of political patronage of Gandhi family. I think the Gandhi family has a lot to answer for. Today I demand an answer from Rahul Gandhi who said a few days ago that Congress had no hand in genocide," added Badal.

"It is Sajjan Kumar today. It will be Jagdish Tytler tomorrow, then Kamal Nath and eventually, the Gandhi family will be answerable. I demand that action must be taken against Sonia Gandhi who must have been in compliance with all that Rajiv Gandhi was planning and perpetrating," said the Union Minister.

Delhi High Court on Monday reversed the trial court verdict of 2013 and sentenced Sajjan Kumar to jail for life in one of the most important convictions in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The senior Congress party leader was found guilty of inciting crowds to kill Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Recalling the horrific incidents of November 1984, she said, "Congress leaders, at the behest of then Prime Minister, went to Sikh houses along with the police. Even today when I think of all that happened, it gives me goosebumps. Children were crying. They could not utter a word. I still remember it today."

"The houses were marked with the help of the police. Sikhs were taken out of houses and were killed. We were trying to protect ourselves and were saved by the almighty. Thousands of innocent were brutally killed before their families," Badal claimed.

She also credited the commission made by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "It was during Atal Bihari Vajpayee"s government that Nanavati Commission was formed, which recorded the details of 1984 riots."I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA government at the Centre for considering the demand of SAD for an SIT that was formed in 2015. The victims once again got their statements recorded."Hailing the HC judgment as historic, she also asserted that the wheels of justice are "now functioning again to provide justice" to the victims.

Expressing some apprehensions over Sajjan Kumar being represented by the son of Kapil Sibal in the court, Badal said, "The intervention of senior Congress party leaders comes only when some sort of Gandhis" interest is there. Kapil Sibal"s son Amit Sibal is the main lawyer for Sajjan Kumar."