No possibility of reopening acquittals in 1984 riots, SIT tells apex court

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NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police and authorities who handled the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases had no interest in punishing the accused, said a two-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed the possibility of reopening nearly 200 cases which ended up in acquittals.

“The whole efforts of the police and the administration seem to have been to hush up the criminal cases concerning riots,” said the committee headed by former Delhi high court judge, justice (retd) SN Dhingra. The SIT, in its report submitted to the Centre in April 2019, said, “All 199 cases were scrutinised for possibility of further action but in none of the cases further investigation is possible.”

The SIT report was taken on record by the Supreme Court on November 3 in a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking re-investigation into the 199 closed cases in the 1984 riots filed by former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Managesian ment Committee. The court said that it hear the case after two weeks.

Around 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi in violence that followed the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on October 31, 1984.

Pointing to the role of the police and administration, the committee, said, “Despite a large number of victims approaching various agencies soon after the riots and for few years thereafter, still a large number of crimes of murders, rioting, looting, arson, remained unpunished and untraced.”

The whole efforts of the police and the administration seem to have been to hush up the criminal cases concerning (1984 anti-Sikh) riots.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION TEAM