Anti-Sikh riots: CBI gives clean chit to Tytler again

NEW DELHI: In a relief to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, CBI has once again given a clean chit to him in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The agency has recently filed a closure report before a trial court. This is the third time in a row that the agency has filed a closure report before the court, which issued notice to the wife of the victim, Badal Singh, on Wednesday.
CBI told the court that it conducted further probe in the case, as directed by a sessions court, but found no evidence against Tytler. In April 2013, CBI was directed by a sessions court to further investigate the case as the court had set aside its earlier closure report. Tytler had earlier got clean chit twice from the CBI which had closed the case.
The latest closure report was filed before chief metropolitan magistrate who marked it to additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler. ACMM Laler issued notice for March 27 to the complainant, Lakhvinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was killed during the 1984 riots.
The court said, "Perusal of record revealed that the cancellation report was also filed earlier as regards accused Jagdish Tytler." "Accordingly, court notice be issued to Lakhvinder Kaur regarding present closure report in view of judgment of the Supreme Court.... for March 27," the ACMM said.
Senior advocate H S Phoolka, representing the riot victims, expressed disappointment over the CBI's move of filing the closure report. The filing of the closure report by the investigating agency was strongly opposed by him., who claimed that the fact that this report was filed "secretly" raises questions on the credibility of the agency.
"Why is it being done so secretly? It has been three months since filing of the report but even the complainant has not been informed about it. It has been filed secretly. This shows an attempt has been made to get the closure report accepted by the court in hush-hush manner," Phoolka said. He said the closure report was filed on December 24, 2014 and he had come to know about it on Wednesday itself and that too, unofficially through another lawyer, while the complainant has not been informed till now.
The sessions court on April 10, 2013, had set aside the CBI's closure report giving clean chit to Tytler and ordered reopening of investigation into the killing of three persons. The court had found fault with the investigation by the agency saying it had not examined the available witnesses. Some witnesses had alleged that during the riots, Tytler was instigating the mob to kill Sikhs. Court had directed CBI to also record the statements of witnesses, about whom it had come to know during the probe and who had claimed to be eye witnesses to the incident.
The court had said that CBI had an "obligation" to record the statements of three US-based persons, whose names were taken by an eyewitness who had claimed that they too were present at the site. The court's 2013 order had come on a plea by the riot victims against the CBI giving a clean chit to Tytler and filing a closure report. The victims had sought the court's direction to the CBI to further probe the case to ascertain Tytler's alleged role in the riots.
The CBI had, however, sought dismissal of the victim's plea saying the probe has made it clear that Tytler was not present on November 1, 1984 at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed during the riots and was rather at Teen Murti Bhawan, where Indira Gandhi's body was kept. Tytler's alleged role relating to the killing of three persons -- Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh -- near Gurudwara Pulbangash was re-investigated by the CBI after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report.
Another accused Suresh Kumar Paniwala, who faced trial for the offences of murder and inciting the mob during the riots, was acquitted by a Delhi court in 2014. CBI had again given a clean chit to Tytler on April 2, 2009 claiming lack of evidence against him pertaining to the murder of three persons on November 1, 1984, in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira Gandhi. However, on April 27, 2010, a magistrate had accepted CBI's closure report against Tytler, saying there was no evidence to put him on trial.