HC slams police, asks why it shouldn’t order retrial
Noting that Delhi Police and prosecution “appear to have completely abdicated their duties” in handling the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, the Delhi high court on Wednesday issued showcause notices to the city government and 10 accused as to why it should not order reinvestigation and retrial against them.
A bench of justices Gita Mittal and Anu Malhotra termed the acquittal of all the accused in five cases on anti-Sikh riots by a trial court here in 1986 as “shocking our judicial conscience”.
“The prosecutions were launched without any effort at ensuring that investigations were honestly complete and that culpability could be fixed,” the bench said, adding, “the police, the prosecutors, even the courts, appear to have failed the victims, and most importantly society”.
The court noted that the chargesheet filed in the cases did not carry out the bare essential requirements of an investigation into any of the complaints.
“No effort has been made to trace out either the dead bodies or the stolen materials. No statement of the eye-witnesses, including relatives or any other neighbours or other public persons who may have been present has been recorded,” the court said.
It noted that in some cases complainants were not issued summons and in the rest, the summons were sent to the addresses where houses were burnt during riots and therefore, could not be served.
“What to say of investigation, the complaints which disclosed commission of the heinous and serious offence like murder, have not even been registered,” the bench added.
Commenting on the riots, the bench said these were no ordinary crimes, or ‘simple’ murders. “The complaints disclose horrifying crimes against humanity. The complaints also point out that male members of one community were singled out for elimination. Perhaps, had these terrible offences in 1984 been punished and the offenders brought to book, the history of crime in this country, may have been different,” it added.
The judges said that in interests of justice the complainants in the cases would have a right to be heard again.
The court issued notices to various accused in the cases including ex-councillor Balwan Khokkar, former MLA Mahender Yadav and Ved Prakash.
The court direction came after the trial court records were placed before it by the CBI during hearing of another 1984 riot case in which the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar has been challenged by the agency.
It has posted the case for further hearing on April 20.
The riots broke out on November 1, 1984 after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.