latest news developments regarding court case related to Ghallughara of November 1984

[Mehtab Singh]

New Delhi, April 10: In a major setback for Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, a Delhi court on Wednesday, April 10 ruled that case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler should be re-opened in connection with 1984 riot which was broke out post Indira Gandhi assassination.

Tytler was accused of instigating a rioting mob, which murdered three men - Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh - who had taken shelter at a north Delhi gurudwara on Nov 1, 1984.

Overruling all allegations against Tytler, the investigative agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) led by the then chief Ashwani Kumar had given a clean chit to him. Dr Ashwani Kumar, who in 2007 and 2009 had claimed that there were no evidence against Tytler, is the present Governor of Nagaland.

The Delhi court delivered its latest verdict in connection with the plea which was filed by Lakhwinder Kaur, the widow of one of the men killed. Mrs Kaur had challenged CBI's closure report in 2009. She insisted that the CBI has not recorded the testimony of two key eyewitnesses who have since moved to the United States.

CBI prosecutor, during the previous court hearing on April 4, had sought the dismissal of Lakhwinder Kaur's petition. The prosecutor claimed that Tytler was not present at the Pulbangash Gurudwara on Nov 1, 1984.

The prosecutor argued that at the time of the incident, the Congress was at Teen Murti Bhawan, the residence of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had been assassinated by her Sikh security guards the previous day.

However, this was not the first time when Tytler's role in the riot has come under scanner. Earlier another court in 2007 had asked agencies to re-investigate Tytler's alleged role.

The riots broke out on the evening of Oct 31, 1984, the day the then Prime Minister Mrs Gandhi was assassinated. Over the next few days, more than 8,000 Sikhs were killed across the country, 3,000 of them in the national capital.

http://www.samachar.com/AntiSikh-riots-SC-upholds-life-sentence-of-four-nekrTvfecaa.html

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the life sentence awarded to four persons for burning two men to death during 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and MY Eqbal turned down the plea of the convicts that they could not be held guilty of murder as the body was not recovered by the Delhi police and there was delay in lodging FIR in the case.

"It is well-settled that discovery of dead body of the victim has never been considered as the only mode of proving the corpus delicti (evidence) in murder.

"In fact, there are many cases of such nature like the present one where the discovery of dead body is impossible, specially when members of a particular community were murdered in such a violent mob attack on Sikh community in different places and offenders tried to remove the dead bodies and also looted articles," it said.

The bench upheld the Delhi High Court's order convicting and sentencing Delhi residents Lal Bahadur, Surender P Singh, Ram Lal and Virender Singh to life imprisonment. The High Court had on August 27, 2008 set aside the trial court's order which had acquitted all the four.

"It is clear that the High Court re-appreciated the evidence of the witnesses in detail and meticulously examined the facts and circumstances of the case in its right perspective and recorded a finding that the prosecution has proved the case against the appellants," the bench said.

The bench also observed that mere variation in statements of a witnesses could not be a ground to discard their testimony as had been done by the trial court in the case.

"It is indeed necessary to note that one hardly comes across a witness whose evidence does not contain some exaggeration or embellishment sometimes there could even be a deliberate attempt to offer embellishment and sometimes in their over-anxiety they may give a slightly exaggerated account.

"The court can sift the chaff from the grain and find out the truth from the testimony of the witnesses. Total repulsion of the evidence is unnecessary. The evidence is to be considered from the point of view of trustworthiness," the bench said.

PTI

http://www.samachar.com/AntiSikh-riots-SC-upholds-life-sentence-of-four-nekrTvfecaa.html

[Singh, Mahan]

The news report from The business Standard (Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 10:38 PM IST)

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/anti-sikh-riots-delhi-court-asks-cbi-to-re-open-tytler-case-113041000349_1.html

Anti-Sikh riots: Delhi court asks CBI to re-open Tytler case

The order of magisterial court accepting the CBI report giving clean chit to Tytler has been set aside

In a big jolt to Jagdish Tytler, a Delhi court today ordered reopening of a 1984 anti-Sikhs riots case against him, setting aside a CBI closure report giving clean chit to the Congress leader.

The CBI was directed to examine eye-witnesses and people claiming to have information about the riots.

Additional Sessions Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj set aside the order of a magisterial court which accepted CBI's closure report giving a clean chit to Tytler.

"The order of the trial court accepting the closure report is set aside. CBI is directed to conduct the investigation and examine the claimants/eye witnesses in the case," the judge directed.

The ASJ's order came on a plea by the riot victims against the CBI giving a clean chit to Tytler and filing a closure report.

During lengthy arguments over the past few months in support of the plea, senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for petitioner Lakhwinder Kaur, had submitted that there was material which the agency has ignored and evidence was also there before the trial court against Tytler.

"CBI had time to examine Tytler's driver, who had deposed in his favour, but they had no time to record the statement of the witnesses who had seen Tytler at the spot of incident. Are they (CBI) investigating on the command of Tytler?," he had said.

The CBI had, however, sought dismissal of the plea filed by the victim saying the probe has made it clear that Tytler was not present on November 1, 1984 at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed during the riots.

Tytler's alleged role in the case relating to killing of three persons -- Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh -- near the Gurudwara Pulbangash was re-investigated by the CBI after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report.

The CBI claimed that at the time of the incident, Tytler was at Teen Murti Bhawan, the residence of the then late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and that it has already re-investigated the case on the order of trial court but there was no sufficient evidence against Tytler.

CBI had given a clean chit to Tytler on April 2, 2009 claiming lack of evidence against him in the case pertaining to the murder of three persons on November 1, 1984, in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira Gandhi. However, on April 27, 2010, a magistrate had accepted CBI's closure report in the case against Tytler, saying there was no evidence to put him on trial.

The court had allowed CBI's closure report saying Tytler was present at Teen Murti Bhawan and was not at the spot of crime
and the contentions of CBI were justified by material, including some visual tapes and versions of some independent
witnesses.

One of the witness, Jasbir (now residing in California), in an affidavit, had claimed before the Justice Nanavati Commission that he had heard Tytler on November 3, 1984, rebuking his men for the "nominal killings" carried out in the riots.

The court had rejected Jasbir's version, saying he had deposed for something which took place on November 3 while the case related to an incident of November 1, 1984.

Some of the witnesses had alleged that during the riots, Tytler was instigating the mob to kill Sikhs, a charge strongly refuted by him.

[WaljinderSingh]

Centre has intentionally ordered the court for the order of enquiry... The process will go on till the general elections of next year and will again drop the charges by giving a clean chit or keep the case hung until the witnesses in the case or perpetrators die a natural death.