SIT to close one 1984 anti-Sikh riots case
Special Investigation Team (SIT) has decided to close a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which two men were allegedly killed by a mob in central Delhi as no evidence regarding any accused could be collected during its reinvestigation, police informed a Delhi court.
After the SIT was constituted in 2015 following an order of the ministry of home affairs, the case was re-opened and investigated again.
The court issued notice to the family of the two Sikh men allegedly killed by a mob near ISBT Kashmere Gate on November 1, 1984 during the riots that broke out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
In its latest 16-page report filed before the court, the police said, “No incriminating direct or circumstantial evidence is available against any person. Hence, further investigation of the case has been closed.”
According to the prosecution, on November 1, 1984, police officers saw some people shouting near the ISBT taxi stand and 15-20 vehicles were being burnt. Around 500 rioters were carrying sticks and stones.
They were allegedly raising slogans, and when the police tried to nab the rioters, they fled in different directions, th report said, adding that the officers saw two Sikh men lying injured.
The two men were taken to hospital where they were declared brought dead. A case for various offences including murder, rioting, indulging in rioting armed with a deadly weapon and mischief by fire or explosive substance with an intent to destroy a house under the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Kashmere Gate police station.
The case was marked untraced by the then investigating officer on May 1, 1985, when the identity of the offenders could not be established.
The police said that during further probe, they examined various witnesses who said they cannot identify the rioters.
The report said a public notice was published in several newspapers requesting people, who were acquainted with the facts, to give evidence or depose but no one came forward before the SIT.
The Delhi high court on Thursday granted 14-day bail to former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, who is serving life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, to enable him to sell his property and arrange funds to pay his lawyers.
A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice Anu Malhotra released Khokhar on bail on the condition that he will neither leave the national capital nor try to contact or influence the witnesses in the case.
The petitioners in the Aadhaar case argue that privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution and, hence, gathering a person’s personal and biometric details breaches the privilege.
The government rebuts the argument and has taken a stand based on the top court’s previous verdicts that say privacy is not an inviolable right.
The bench is revisiting the two judgments as well.
Chief Justice Khehar proposed a formula to define the right to privacy.
“I think whenever an action bothers one’s dignity we could probably say it violates that per-
Deepa Kumra, who travels from Shahpurjat to Connaught Place every day, said she took 45 minutes to traverse a two-kilometre stretch on her route. “Usually, I cover it in five minutes,” she added. On several south Delhi and Dhaula Kuan roads, motorists found the time to come of their vehicles, take photographs of roads flooded with water and then get back to waiting. A minibus broke down on Rangpuri Flyover, further aggravating the congestion between Gurgaon and Dhaula Kuan.
While the rain-related issues were resolved by afternoon, the kanwariyas continued to cause traffic jams until late in the night. Serpentine queues of vehicles
Large-scale cross-voting exposed the vulnerability of the opposition camp, especially Congress legislators favouring Kovind in poll-bound Gujarat. As many as 11 Congress MLAs voted for the NDA candidate.
It exposed chinks in the opposition party facing rebellion by senior leader Shankarsinh Vaghela.
Besides, three Rajya Sabha seats in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be vacant in August and the Congress expects to win one, provided it can keep its flock together. The BJP is comfortably placed on the other two seats.
“We will thoroughly look into the matter once the final results come from states and take appropriate action. However, Kumar got more votes than expected in many states such as Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland. The important aspect is that the opposition parties stood united and will remain so in future as well,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
Rajasthan brought some cheer for the Congress as Kumar secured half-a-dozen more votes than expected. While the Congress has 24 MLAs and got the support of two BSP legislators and two independents, Kumar secured 34 votes.
It was, however, not clear whether any of the surplus votes came from the BJP, which has 161 MLAs. Kovind got the support of 166 and it’s likely that the additional votes for Kumar might have come from smaller parties.
In Uttar Pradesh, Kumar was expected to get the vote of 74 legislators from the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi
He will enter Rashtrapati Bhavan on July 25 and on the same day incumbent Pranab Mukherjee leaves for his new address in Rajaji Marg, the bungalow where the late APJ Abdul Kalam lived after retirement.
The Congress-led opposition’s nominee, Kumar, managed to secure the highest share of votes as runner-up in 48 years of the presidential election.
Only Kota Subbarao in 1962 and Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy in 1969 got higher vote shares than Kumar. “I want to make it very clear that today on July 20, my battle for ideology doesn’t end, it will continue,” she announced after congratulating Kovind for his victory.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted an old photo of Kovind and him on Twitter to showcase their long association and expressed happiness for “the extensive support” to the NDA candidate.
“Congratulations to Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji on being elected the President of India! Best wishes for a fruitful & inspiring tenure,” he tweeted. He also congratulated Kumar for her campaign, which he described “was in spirit of the democratic ethos & values we all are proud of”.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul congratulated Kovind. “The President of India enjoys a unique position as defender and protector of the Constitution, upholder of democratic traditions and as supreme commander of the Indian Armed Forces,” she said.
The opposition’s vice presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi sent his good wishes to Kovind for an “outstanding tenure” in Rashtrapati Bhavan.