1984 anti-Sikh riots: Court reserves order on plea of victims

A Delhi Court today reserved its order on the petitions of victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, pleading they should be heard while deciding the alleged involvement of former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler in it.
    
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Rakesh Pandit fixed June 3 for pronouncement of the order on the application filed by riot victims as well as Delhi Sikh
Gurudwara Management Committee that the court should decide their right to be heard in the matter.
    
Senior Counsel H S Phoolka, appearing for the victims, said the victims had a right to be heard in the matter. During the argument, CBI counsel A K Srivastava questioned the jurisdiction of the ACMM Court and said the matter be referred to the Sessions court. CBI had on April 2 sought to close the case against Tytler, claiming there was no sufficient evidence against him.
    
Tytler (65) was also given a clean chit by CBI on September 28, 2007, after the agency failed to trace Jasbir Singh, a key witness in the case. However, the court had refused to accept CBI's closure report and directed the agency to further investigate the case
in December 2007, compelling the agency to send its officials to the United States to record the Singh's statement.

Tytler resigned as Union Minister of the UPA government in 2005 in the wake of the Justice G T Nanavati Commission report indicting him for his alleged role in the riots. The case relates to an incident on November 1, 1984, when a mob set afire Gurdwara Pulbangash in Delhi killing three persons.
    
Singh, the witness, had told the Commission on August 31, 2000 that "he had overheard Tytler rebuking his men on the night of November 3, 1984...for nominal killing of Sikhs in his constituency."