M A I N   N E W S

Discrepancy in ’84 riots toll: panel

New Delhi, November 19
The Justice Nanavati Commission, probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, today came across yet another discrepancy in the records of the Delhi police over the number of those killed in the communal carnage that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The discrepancy was pointed out by riot victims’ counsel H.S. Phoolka with regard to the toll figures related to the Seelampur area in East Delhi.

While the toll mentioned in the police record was only 10, Mr Phoolka drew the panel’s attention to a single FIR wherein the number of those killed added up to 60.

The victims’ counsel also brought to the notice of the commission a report of the Delhi Administration inquiry into the riots which put the toll in the area at 51.

The then Seelampur SHO Bhim Singh, who appeared before the commission today, gave another varying figure from the police side, contradicting the official figure of 10. During the course of his cross-examination by Mr Phoolka, he revealed that according to his information, 20 deaths took place in the area.

The commission asked Mr Phoolka to submit to the Delhi police the list of 60 deaths referred to in the single FIR mentioned by him so that the police could be given a chance to explain the discrepancy.

The retired SHO also admitted that the area police had arrested only one person till November 8— more than a week after the riots broke out — and that too was a Sikh who opened fire on a communal mob from his rooftop in self defence.

Mr Phoolka also pointed out a significant entry in the logbook of Seelampur police station dated October 31, 1984, which recorded a message that some vehicles of the Sikh regiment of the Army were on the roads and the troops did not know where to report.

The entry indicated the presence of Army in the Capital just a day after the assassination of Mrs Gandhi as against the Central Government’s version before the previous Mishra Commission that the troops came out of the barracks on the evening of November 1. The government had yet not made its stand clear on the issue before the Nanavati Commission.

As far as the varying figures in police records over the toll are concerned, a similar discrepancy had come to the notice of the commission recently when Assistant Commissioner of Police R.C. Thakur deposed before it to give the official version in connection with the anti-Sikh violence that took place in Seemapuri — another East Delhi area.

While Mr Thakur, the then Seemapuri SHO, told the panel that 27 deaths took place in the area, Mr Phoolka mentioned a single FIR which spoke of 65 deaths on the basis of complaints of the victims and statements of the witnesses. The report of the Delhi administration inquiry in this case had put the toll at 247. UNI