1984 riots case: Court directs CBI SP to appear

New Delhi: A senior CBI officer was on Tuesday directed by a Delhi Court to appear before it and explain why the status report on further probe in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has not yet been filed.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) SPS Laler expressed displeasure over the non-appearance of the investigating officer (IO) in the case and non-filing of the status report called by the court.

The court directed the CBI's Superintendent of Police to appear before it on February 22 and explain why the report on further probe ordered by it in the case was not filed.

The court had on December 4, 2015, directed the CBI to further probe the 1984-anti Sikh 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.

It had also said that as CBI had filed closure reports in the case several times, it would therefore now on monitor the probe every two months so that no aspects of the matter is left uninvestigated.

During the hearing, the court asked the CBI prosecutor regarding the status report to which he said the IO was not present.

Senior advocate H S Phoolka, representing riot victims, urged the court to take a stern view to non-compliance of its order and sought to summon senior officials of the agency to explain.

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 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.