SC’s new SIT on 186 anti-Sikh riot cases closed without probe

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to constitute a new special investigation team, headed by a retired High Court judge, to probe 186 anti-Sikh riot cases of 1984 that were closed without investigation.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the Centre to suggest names on Wednesday itself to enable it to announce the SIT on Thursday.

It acted on a report of a supervisory panel of two retired Supreme Court judges J M Panchal and K S P Radhakrishnan constituted last year to look into 293 cases during the riots that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. As many as 2,733 persons were officially declared as killed in Delhi alone during the riots.

Sardar Gurlad Singh Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, had moved court demanding that a special probe team be set up. He had argued that neither has the probe been completed by an earlier probe team in any of these cases, nor any chargesheet filed.

An SIT was formed by the Narendra Modi government in 2015 after a special committee appointed by it recommended such a move to examine anti-Sikh riots case pending since 1984. The team was headed by IPS officer Pramod Asthana and had exdistrict judge Rakesh Kapoor and additional DCP Kumar Gyanesh as its members.

Not satisfied with this SIT, the Bench, which also included Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, decided to constitute a new 3-member SIT headed by a High Court judge and two IPS officers, one serving and one who had retired not below the rank of DIG.