Forgotten faces, dead suspects: ‘Time’ proves to be biggest hurdle for SIT probing 1984 riots
NEWDELHI: A 31-year delay in solving all closed cases of the1984 antisikh riots may have been too much to ask for, even from a special investigation team (SIT).
In February 2015, the threemember team of a retired judge and two serving police officers began their probe into 60 cases.
The records were old, some evidence lost and many witnesses had forgotten faces of those in the mob. In the end, the SIT managed conviction in one case and closed 52 others.
Sample this —on the afternoon of November 2, 1984, when the Delhi-bombay Deluxe Rajdhani Express reached New Delhi railway station, there were 19 charred bodies in it. Records show that a mob of 2,000 had attacked Sikh passengers at the Tughlaqabad railway station.
When the team began investigation this case in 2015, according to documents submitted in court, important case papers, such as autopsy reports, witness statements could not be retrieved.
However, using bits of evidence, the team tracked down 33 witnesses, including the train’s guard and passengers. But when confronted with photographs, they said they could not identify the suspects. Most even said they were approached by an investigation team for the first time.
“The SIT had shown them photographs of over 100 persons who were arrested from near the spot that day. But they couldn’t identify them,” an officer, who until recently assisted the SIT in their investigation, said. He said that while documents were missing in most cases, in many others, the complainants were either untraceable or the identified suspects had died. Another is a case in which a mob that killed 50-year-old Sardar Trilok Singh in Bhajanpura. After months of digging through old records and tracing witnesses who had left Delhi and settled in other states, the team identified six suspects.
Records show that the team located their addresses but found that they had all died of natural causes. One suspect, Kishore Lal Thekedar, had died in November 2016, while the team was probing the case. “The court while accepting the team’s report appreciated the team’s effort of digging old evidence. In two cases against former parliamentarian Sajjan Kumar, the team also found witnesses who had never been contacted,” a government official, privy to the information said.
Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member KTS Tulsi said that the government should have had more than 500 persons or a separate agency to probe the cases, if it was serious about it. “How can a two-member or threemember committee investigate so many cases? But let me tell you, the Sikhs will fight another 100 years to get justice,” he said.
“Had a probe been ordered even 15 years ago, more cases would be solved. The SIT has managed a conviction in one case. There are about 50 officers working round-the-clock at a small office in Lok Nayak Bhavan. Let’s hope they solve more cases,” said a senior home ministry officer.
The team is still working on the seven cases, two of which include the name of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, already convicted in an 1984 anti-sikh riots case.