Only 39 convictions in 650 cases, justice eludes 1984 riot victims

Forty-one years ago, Delhi burned, not from a foreign enemy, but from within. Between October 31 and November 7, 1984, mobs roamed the streets hunting down Sikh men, torching homes and setting gurdwaras ablaze. Officially, 2,733 Sikhs were killed in the capital even as survivors say the toll was over 3,000. Over four decades later, most of the “guilty” still walk free.

Of the 650 cases registered, chargesheets were filed in 362, but only 39 ended in conviction. Nearly 300 cases collapsed for want of evidence, witnesses or police will. Now, barely 20 cases remain alive, dragging on in Delhi’s trial courts or pending appeal in the high court. The rest have been swallowed by the system’s silence.

The numbers tell a story of a democracy that forgot its dead. This week, as the city marks the anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the violence that followed, the courts are still sifting through yellowing files and fading memories -- a justice process that has moved slower than time itself.

Two names have come to define this unfinished reckoning -- Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. Kumar, a former Congress MP, was convicted in December 2018 for the murder of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar, Delhi Cantt. The Delhi High Court described the riots as “crimes against humanity” and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He remains in Tihar Jail, but his appeal is still pending before the high court seven years later. Earlier this year, the court recorded his statement in another riot-related case, a chilling reminder that the past continues to breathe inside Delhi’s courtrooms.

Tytler, another former Congress MP, was chargesheeted by the CBI in 2023 for allegedly instigating a mob that killed three men at the Pul Bangash gurdwara on November 1, 1984. In August 2024, a Delhi court ordered the framing of charges against him under sections of murder, rioting and promoting enmity. He is out on bail, with his trial expected to begin later this year.

These two cases, still in motion four decades later, represent the handful that survived the wreckage of failed investigations and political interference.

The Nanavati report in 2005 laid bare how police investigations collapsed almost by design. “The police had prepared a kind of format for the aggrieved persons for submitting their complaints… but it mainly called for information regarding looted or burnt properties. It did not contain any column regarding names of the victims or offenders,” the report said.

“The chargesheets were mostly couched in general terms… several accused, in some cases numbering 100 or more, were put up together to stand trial even though allegations against them were totally different. The result was acquittal due to utter confusion and want of marshalling of evidence,” it added.

The report also indicted senior officers for “abdicating responsibility of supervision and control,” recommending disciplinary action against errant officials. None were punished.

Even the Ahuja Committee, which investigated the scale of killings, noted that most deaths occurred on November 1 and 2, when mobs roamed unchecked for nearly 48 hours as the police looked away.

The courts have repeatedly tried to breathe life back into the pursuit of justice. In 2018, the Supreme Court constituted a special investigation team (SIT) with retired IPS officer Rajdeep Singh as its member to reopen 186 closed cases. A handful were revived, including those against Tytler and Kumar, but most crumbled again as witnesses had died, memories had faded and files had vanished.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court directed the Delhi High Court to submit progress reports on all suo motu revision petitions in the riot cases, observing that “delay itself amounts to denial of justice in crimes of such magnitude.” But for survivors, hope has long been replaced by exhaustion.

The government maintains that the judicial process must take its course. But the survivors’ patience has already taken theirs. What began as an investigation into murder and arson has become an indictment of the state’s conscience.