The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the Delhi Government to provide manpower and infrastructure for the special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The SIT exists only on paper as the Delhi Government has not provided the logistics since its formation. Delhi Government’s approach has baffled the MHA and it reminded the Arvind Kejriwal Government to expedite the functioning of the SIT constituted by the Centre.
MHA had announced a three-member SIT in February to examine fresh evidence in cases which had been closed. Delhi Police and CBI have investigated the riots cases so far. The newly-appointed SIT had been empowered to look into all serious criminal cases relating to the riots by examining evidence and even re-opening cases and filing chargesheets in the courts concerned. The SIT had been given six months to complete its work, including filing of chargesheets in nearly three-decade old cases.
In a letter to the AAP Government, Rakesh Singh, a Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry, said that more than two-and-a-half had passed since the constitution of the SIT, but the team was not able to move forward for want of required manpower, including public prosecutors.
“A special investigation team (SIT) for investigating/reinvestigating the cases of 1984 riots has been constituted by the orders of the competent authority of MHA, with Dr Pramod Asthana, IPS as its chairman. The SIT has been directed to complete the exercise within a period of six months,” the letter said.
Considering the huge mandate assigned to SIT and the crucial time already elapsed, Singh has requested the Delhi Government to once again look into the matter to provide the requisites to the SIT within a week. Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar are facing allegations of involvement in riots after Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984.
The letter said the officer had held a meeting in his chamber and information related to it had been circulated well in advance. It said that the meeting was attended by the city Government’s Additional Secretary (Home) and he was briefed about the requirement of the three prosecutors to the SIT for which he had assured that necessary action would be taken immediately.
The BJP-led NDA Government’s move to set up SIT into 1984 anti-Sikh riots was announced at a time when polls to the Delhi Assembly were to be held. The AAP, which swept the elections, had earlier termed the setting up of SIT as a “poll gimmick” by the BJP. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his personal intervention for constituting an SIT to re-investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The constitution of a SIT for re-investigation of the riot cases was recommended by a Government-appointed committee. The committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) GP Mathur had submitted its report to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in January, recommending a fresh probe of such cases. Anti-Sikh riots had erupted in the Capital and northern States in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 at the hands of her security guards at her official residence. The Government had recently provided additional Rs5 lakh compensation to the families of Sikhs killed in the 1984 riots, which claimed 3,325 people. Delhi alone accounted for 2,733 and the rest were killed in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other States. It may be noted that nine panels had probed the politically-sensitive 1984 riots cases in the last 30 years.