’84 riots: Akalis protest CBI clean chit to Tytler

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

The Delhi Police today used water cannons to disperse Akali activists protesting against the CBI’s clean chit to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. The protest was held under the banner of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). No one was injured in the incident.

The police used water cannons when protesters broke the barricade erected to prevent them from marching towards the CBI headquarters. The police detained DSGMC president Manjit Singh, general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa, former MLA Harmit Singh Kalka and others. They were released later.

Raising slogans against the CBI and the Congress, Akali activists burnt an effigy of Jagdish Tytler. They demanded that the report of the investigation conducted during the Congress government be scrapped and a reinvestigation ordered.

Delhi unit Akali Dal chief and DSGMC president Manjit Singh (GK) said, “Giving clean chit to Jagdish Tytler during the BJP-SAD government at the Centre is surprising. Though the BJP is not responsible for the investigation report as it was done during the regime of the Congress-led UPA government, it should have scrapped the report and the case should have been reinvestigated. Everybody knows who was behind the killing of innocent Sikhs, still the accused is not being punished,” he said.

DSGMC general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the government had constituted an SIT to investigate the case and the report would be submitted in three months. But the CBI had submitted the closure report giving a clean chit to the accused. It showed the investigating agency was not serious to punish the accused.

Amar Singh, a protester, said, “My two uncles were killed by a mob in Trilokpuri during the riots. I was a small child then. I saw them being killed, but the police did not record the statements of my family members. The CBI is working for the government. It is not conducting a genuine investigation.”

Ranjit Singh, another protester who works with the DSGMC, said, “My father, Saroop Singh, was killed during the riots in Sultanpuri. We have been contesting the case for the past 30 years, but no result has come so far.”