Another turn in 1984 riots issue : Court asks CBI to write to Canadian High Commission

A Delhi court directed the CBI to write to the High Commission of Canada for information regarding a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler was given clean chit by it, and complete further investigation in two months. The CBI filed a status report regarding further probe in the matter before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Shivali Sharma who asked the agency to also file the reply of High Commission of Canada.

During the hearing, the agency sought four months’ time to complete the probe saying they have to get the details from Canada and they had earlier approached the Canadian High Commission orally. The court, however, said there was no question of moving the Commission orally and asked CBI to write to it. It posted the matter for July ,11 directing the CBI to complete the probe by then and file its report.

Senior advocate H S Phoolka, representing riot victims, objected to CBI’s submissions saying the court had earlier asked the agency to probe on 11 points and barring one, all others can be probed here, and majority of them are concerned with the Canadian High Commission. The court had on December 4, 2015, directed CBI to further probe the riots case against Tytler, saying the statement of arms dealer Abhishek Verma disclosed an active role played by the Congress leader in extending “helping hand” to a witness against him. The court had also said that as the CBI had filed closure reports in the case several times, it would from now on monitor the probe every two months so that no aspect of the matter is left uninvestigated.

The case pertains to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The court’s order had come on a protest petition filed by complainant Lakhvinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was killed in the violence, challenging the CBI’s closure report exonerating Tytler.

The court had noted that the statement given by Verma to CBI in which he claimed that Tytler had sent the son of Surinder Singh Granthi, a key witness against him, to Canada cannot be a “sheer coincidence” and the agency should probe if the facts disclosed by Verma were true. CBI had re-investigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept the closure report. CBI had filed three closure reports in the case. Tytler has denied any role in the riots.

By – Nikita Goel