Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) Congress leader Jagdish Tytler’s fate is likely to be decided by a city court Thursday after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gave him a clean chit in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots here.
The court may decide on accepting the CBI closure report against Tytler and ordering the quashing of charges against him or order fresh investigation into the case.

De-sealing its final report in the case in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Rakesh Pandit, the CBI on April 2 pleaded that the case against Tytler be cancelled.

According to CBI, affidavits in the case by two witnesses, Surender Singh and Jasbir Singh, were inconsistent and contradictory.

In January 2002, Surender Singh filed an affidavit before the Justice Nanavati Commission probing the riots, and said Tytler incited a mob to burn a gurdwara and kill Sikhs on Nov 1, 1984.

In August 2002, he filed another affidavit pleading ignorance about the first document, the CBI said.

In 2006, he filed a third affidavit backing the August 2002 claim and was re-examined in 2008 after which he left for the US.

California-based Jasbir Singh, who had earlier been declared untraceable by the CBI, stated in his affidavit that on Nov 3, 1984, he had overheard Tytler commenting on the killing of Sikhs in his then constituency Sadar Bazar.

This was one of the seven cases registered by CBI relating to the anti-Sikh riots - in which more than 3,000 people, including 2,000 in Delhi, were killed in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards Oct 31, 1984.

Tytler, the Congress’ candidate from the Delhi North-East constituency, was among the three prominent Congress leaders accused of having incited mobs. The two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar, who is contesting from South Delhi, and the late H.K.L. Bhagat.