Most 1984 riot FIRs in Kanpur untraced: SIT

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Kanpur, September 21

The SIT formed in February to reinvestigate the anti-Sikh riots cases filed in Kanpur after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, has till now not cared to record the statement of a single witness.

When confronted on Thursday by a delegation of the All-India Riot Victims Relief Committee (AIRVRC), including two Supreme Court lawyers Gurbaksh Singh Dev and Prasoon Kumar, SIT member retired additional director (prosecution) Yogeshwar Krishna Srivastava categorically denied the news reports appearing in a section of the media about the disappearance of case files.

“No file has disappeared. Only we have not been able to locate most of the FIRs or the judicial orders or the papers related to the 1984 cases,” he admitted.

At the insistence of the AIRVRC delegation led by its president Kuldeep Singh Bhogal, Srivastava has agreed to issue a denial to the misleading report of the disappearance of files almost a week after it first appeared.

The reports have disappointed the families of many Kanpur riot victims who are still hoping to get justice, said Bhogal.

The spacious SIT office located on the first floor of the Kanpur Kotwali in the heart of the town has neither a board announcing the office, nor has the SIT till now put out advertisement in newspapers announcing its formation and inviting witnesses to depose before it.

Among the AIRVRC delegation was 63-year-old Avtar Singh, son of Vishakha Singh. He had lost seven members of his immediate family — his parents, four brothers and a sister. The half-hearted manner in which the SIT is functioning can be gauged from the fact it was not aware of Avtar Singh’s case, nor had a copy of his FIR.

When the delegation wanted the SIT to make a symbolic beginning by recording the statement of Avtaar Singh in their presence, Srivastava instead asked the lawyers to get Singh to submit an affidavit. It was left to Avtaar Singh to provide the SIT a copy of his own 35-year-old FIR.

Similarly, AIRVRC lawyer Prasoon Kumar, who had collected some 15 FIRs by filing a series of RTIs in 2015, handed over copies of these FIRs to the SIT to facilitate their working.

Bhogal said, “Rather than waiting to find the FIRs and other documents, the SIT should have started recording statements of key witnesses.”

Next week, the AIRVRC would file a petition before the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the working of the Kanpur SIT, listing the many points on which it has failed.

After Delhi the worst violence was witnessed in Kanpur in 1984. The Justice Ranganath Misra Commission appointed by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has recorded 127 deaths in Kanpur. Not a single person has been punished so far.

Lost 7 of family, still no justice

Among the delegation is Avtar Singh (63), son of Vishakha Singh. He had lost seven members of his immediate family — his parents, four brothers and a sister. The half-hearted manner in which the SIT is functioning can be gauged from the fact it was not aware of Avtar Singh’s case, nor had a copy of his FIR.