Kamal Nath. File photo: A.M. Faruqui

New Delhi

09 September 2019 22:40 IST

Centre has expanded SIT’s remit

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the Union Home Ministry has decided to reopen investigations in seven anti-Sikh riot cases of 1984 in which trial had been completed and cases closed as the accused were discharged.

In April, the Ministry expanded the ambit of the SIT to reinvestigate or further investigate cases in which the accused were discharged or acquitted. The seven anti-Sikh riot cases were registered in 1984 at the police stations in Vasant Vihar, Sun Light Colony, Kalyanpuri, Parliament Street, Connaught Place, Patel Nagar and Shahdara.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Delhi MLA and general secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, said the police never investigated Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath in the Parliament Street case. Mr. Nath was a senior Congress leader then.

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Mr. Sirsa said the five accused persons named in the FIR 601/84 were accommodated in the official residence of Mr. Nath and they were discharged due to lack of evidence.

Two witnesses

He said there were two independent witnesses to verify the claims — Sanjay Suri, who now lives in England, and Mukhtiyar Singh, who is now in Patna, he said.

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“I have spoken to both the witnesses and they are ready to appear before the SIT to record their statements,” Mr. Sirsa said.

Mr. Nath had previously denied the charges.

A year after the BJP government came to power in 2014, the Ministry announced a three-member SIT for re-investigation of the anti-Sikh riot cases, mainly in Delhi and other States. The SIT’s mandate is to “reinvestigate the appropriately serious criminal cases which were filed in the National Capital Territory of Delhi in connection with the 1984 riots and hence since been closed.” It was also asked to file fresh chargesheets against the accused where evidence was available.

The SIT secured the first conviction in November 2018, when a Delhi court awarded death sentence to one of the accused and life imprisonment to another for killing Hardev Singh (24) and Avtar Singh (26) at Mahipalpur. The case was closed by Delhi Police in 1994 for lack of evidence.

Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was sentenced to life for his role in the anti-Sikh riots.

(With PTI inputs)