india

Updated: Sep 10, 2019 01:01 IST

The Special Investigative Team (SIT) looking into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is reopening seven cases of rioting and arson including one in which the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) claims, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, then a Congress MP, was involved.

Kamal Nath’s media coordinator Narendra Saluja said the decision to reopen the case is driven by political motives: “It is a 35 years old incident and the BJP is playing politics. There was neither a report lodged nor a court case against him (Kamal Nath). None of the commissions indicted him in connection with the incident. The matter is being raised after 35 years because Kamal Nath is now the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.”

In 1987, the Ahuja Committee in its report to the government said as many as 2733 Sikhs were killed in the riots following the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards.

In a fresh notification, the SIT has asked for information from “individuals, group of persons, associations, institutions and organizations” on seven cases which were either closed for lack of evidence or resulted in acquittals. The seven cases being relooked includes a case where two Sikhs were killed by a mob outside the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj.

In December 2018, the DSGMC petitioned the home ministry to reopen the Rakab Ganj case. The ministry said on April 9 that : “considering the “seriousness of criminal cases relating to the 1984 riots, the Competent Authority has decided that SIT may also investigate/further investigate/ reinvestigate the appropriately serious cases, which have been closed on account of discharge of the accused, if any, on fresh evidence/facts/coming to light.”

“We are ready with all the evidence. The SIT should examine Kamal Nath on the basis of the evidence,” President of DSGMC, Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.