1984 anti-Sikh riots: CBI questioned in Tytler case
By IANSMonday, March 29, 2010
NEW DELHI - A city court Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) why it did not examine three persons named by a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case involving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit asked the CBI to be ready April 1 with their answers for not examining all the witnesses.
Rebecca R. John, counsel for a riot victim’s widow, Lakhwinder Kaur, said: The CBI did not examine all the witnesses. There are three more people named by witness Surinder Singh who have not been examined by the CBI.”
Kaur’s husband Badal Singh was killed during the riots in November 1984. She claims Tytler’s alleged involvement in the killing.
Questioning the CBI closure report in the case, John added that there are discrepancies in the report and the case should be investigated further.
The court should either discard the (closure) report or send it for further investigation,” he said.
During the two-hour long hearing, counsel questioned the CBI’s decision to reject the statements made by witnesses Surinder Singh and Jasbir Singh, living in California.
The CBI completed its arguments on the closure report by Feb 10 and gave a clean chit to Tytler April 2. The agency claimed there was insufficient evidence against him.
The report said that Surinder and Jasbir had made statements to frame Tytler.
The alleged role of Tytler in a case relating to the killing of three people Nov 1, 1984, in the aftermath of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, was re-investigated by the CBI after the court refused to accept a closure report against him in December 2007.
