NEW DELHI: On a hunger-strike for 56 days now, Iqbal Singh's demands for setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to look into the 1984 riots and releasing of Davinderpal Singh Bhullar on humanitarian grounds were finally heard on Wednesday. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met the LG to voice these demands.

However, it isn't for the first time that the 59-year-old is on a hunger-strike. In May last year, Singh, who is a French citizen and lives in Paris, was in India protesting at Jantar Mantar. It was Kejriwal who had then promised that he would take up the matter if voted to power and requested him to end his hunger-strike. “Kejriwal has kept his promise and the state government has approved the proposal. The AAP government wants the riot cases to be probed again but the Centre is not willing to take up the matter,” he said.

This time, Singh has been in India since December 1. Earlier, he protested in Punjab and continued it at Jantar Mantar from January 1. It's been 28 days in Delhi and he only drinks water to keep himself hydrated. He told TOI he has lost 21 kg, his blood sugar has crashed to 49 and due to severe weakness two men help him to stand or walk. “The doctors have asked me to eat as my sugar level has dipped very low. But I'm ready to die for justice.”

Singh has five children back home in Paris. “We moved to France so many years back but the pain hasn't gone. The riots still haunt us,” he said. In 2005, he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and stopped his protest after getting an assurance from them, he says. “But they did nothing. We don't trust the courts anymore.

Thousands were murdered in 1984 but till date very few have been convicted,” he said.

Others who are protesting with him say all they want is justice but the courts have let off so many perpetrators. Singh lost his uncle and cousins in the riots. “My uncle and his four kids were set on fire in their house in Delhi.” Belonging to Kapurthala district, Singh moved to France after the riots as their farms in Punjab were destroyed. He had protested outside Indian high commissioner's residence in Paris.He now promises to give up his hunger strike, the day an SIT is formed.

