New Delhi: The ghost of the 1984 riots has returned yet again to haunt Congress leader Jagdish Tytler. A sessions court on Wednesday ordered reopening of the case against Tytler despite CBI giving him aclean chit twice.
The former Union minister is accused of instigating a mob on Nov 1, 1984, whose actions led to the death of three persons taking shelter in a gurdwara.
Setting aside the order of a magisterial court, which had accepted the CBI’s closure report in 2010, the court directed the agency to record the statements of purported witnesses. “CBI is directed to conduct further investigation… and to record statements of witnesses, who it had come to know during the investigation itself, and are claiming to be eyewitnesses of the incident,” additional sessions judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj said.
“Let the law take its own course,” Tytler told TOI, putting up a brave front. “CBI has nothing on me and I will come out clean. Today, the court has asked CBI to further investigate and has said nothing against me. This matter is purely between CBI and Lakhwinder Kaur (complainant). I am not in the picture.”
The court’s order on Wednesday came on a plea challenging the magisterial court’s order that accepted CBI’s closure report. Appearing for the riot victims and Lakhwinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was one of the victims, senior advocate H S Phoolka had sought the court’s direction for further investigations. Phoolka had alleged that the agency disregarded the statement of material witnesses. Kaur in her plea had claimed that four persons, Resham Singh, Chanchal Singh, Alam Singh and Santosh Singh, witnessed the incident.
The CBI had sought dismissal of Kaur’s plea saying the probe had made it clear that Tytler was not present on Nov 1, 1984, at Gurudwara Pulbangash in north Delhi where three people were killed during the riots. He was at Teen Murti Bhawan, where Indira Gandhi’s body lay in state, on that day, the agency had said.
While the CBI has given a clean chit to Tytler twice in the past citing the witnesses as “unreliable”, Wednesday’s order left the investigating agency red-faced as the court found fault with the probe for not examining all available witnesses.
“We understand that the CBI reserves its right to conclude that these witnesses were planted and not truthworthy and thus to file a closure report giving its opinion on the issue, however, it did not have any right to have not recorded the statements of these witnesses and thus to have prevented the court from forming its own opinion regarding reliability of these witnesses,” it said in its 12-page order.
The CBI had contended that the statements of eyewitness Surinder Singh, who had died, were contradictory. The court, however, cited an SC judgment in another 1984 riots case against Sajjan Kumar, in which it was held that contradictions in statements were a matter to be decided during the trial.
The sessions court also pulled up the trial court which had accepted CBI’s plea that Surinder was not reliable and, as he had died, the contradictions in his statements could not be explained. “On the contrary, the trial court was required to consider if there was material on record which could corroborate the statements of the witness,” the ASJ said.
The court said CBI had an “obligation” to record the statement of three persons based in the US, whose names were taken by Singh as fellow witnesses.
BACK IN THE DOCK
NOV 1984 | Anti-Sikh riots claim around 3,000 lives in Delhi. Jagdish Tytler is MP from Delhi Sadar at the time JAN 1985 | Tytler becomes Union minister in Rajiv government after elections AUG 10, 2005 | Resigns as minister in UPA govt after Nanavati panel on ’84 riots recommends registration of case against him. Tytler accused of instigating a mob that killed three men hiding in a gurdwara on Nov 1 SEPT 2007 | CBI files closure report, gives him clean chit DEC 2007 | Court rejects closure report APR 2, 2009 | CBI again files closure report. Accepted by court APR 10, 2013 | Sessions court orders reopening of case, on plea of the widow of one of the victims Premature to act against Tytler: Cong
New Delhi: Congress on Wednesday refused to act against party leader Jagdish Tytler, saying it was "premature" to take action till something conclusive came out against him in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
“That is to be examined. We cannot transgress into the court's jurisdiction. If there is something conclusive, we will examine it. It will be premature for us to discuss before that," party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury told reporters.
Chowdhury was responding to reporters’ query whether Tytler, who is AICC in-charge of party affairs in Odisha, would be removed in the wake of a Delhi court ordering reopening of a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against him. She said, "I am not the competent authority. We never ever divert (such issues). We take the bull by the horns (after guilt is established)."
The former Union minister is accused of instigating a mob on Nov 1, 1984, whose actions led to the death of three persons taking shelter in a gurdwara. TNN
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