New Delhi, 20 December
The Supreme Court has asked the central government to file a medical status report on the cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Supreme Court has given a two-week deadline for this work. Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti to file an affidavit and allowed the petitioners in the case to file detailed objections. During the same hearing, Bhatti said that the recommendations of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Supreme Court have been implemented.
The counsel appearing for one of the petitioners, placing before the court some clear examples from the SIT report, said that 500 cases were included in an FIR and the investigating officer could not investigate them. “There are many instances where 498 cases have been clubbed in one FIR and the investigating officer had to investigate all these (cases),” the lawyer said. Initially when the hearing started, the court felt that it should be confined to Delhi only. But we have not done anything about other states. We gave examples of Kanpur, Bokaro etc, but nothing happened.” The Supreme Court assured the petitioners that it would look into all these aspects.
According to the Nanavati Commission report, a total of 587 FIRs were registered in Delhi alone regarding the 1984 riots. 2733 people were killed in these riots. The police closed 240 cases by declaring the accused to be unknown, while the accused were acquitted in 250 cases. The Central Investigation Agency had registered a case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in May 2023 for his alleged role in the murder of three persons on November 1, 1984. The CBI had alleged that Tytler incited a mob that had gathered in the Pul Bangash Gurdwara Azad Market area of the national capital on November 1, 1984, after which the gurdwara was burnt down and Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh were killed. -News-Patiala