Perusal of SIT report shows 'sham' trials conducted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, SC told

Senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for petitioner S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, referred to the SIT report filed on November 29, 2019, and stated that the manner in which trials have been conducted shows that the whole system has failed.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court was told on Thursday that a perusal of a report filed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) shows that "sham" trials have been conducted in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for petitioner S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, referred to the SIT report filed on November 29, 2019, and stated that the manner in which trials have been conducted shows that the whole system has failed.

Citing the report, Phoolka said a perusal of cases shows that in one of the FIRs while police after clubbing various cases sent a challan regarding the killing of 56 people. However, the trial court framed charges only in the killing of five persons and no charge was framed in respect of the remaining, he said.

"It is not known why charges were framed only for five murders and not 56 murders and why trial court did not order separation of trial for each incident of crime," Phoolka read from the report. The top court said it will go through the report and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.

It had earlier issued notice to parties on a plea of Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, seeking inquiry into role of 62 policemen named in the riots. The apex court had constituted the SIT headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice S N Dhingra to supervise further probe into the 1986 riots' cases, in which closure reports had been filed earlier.

The SIT also has its members retired IPS officer Rajdeep Singh and IPS officer Abhishek Dular. However, it currently has only two members as Singh had declined to be a part of the team on "personal grounds".

Large-scale riots had broken out in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on the morning of October 31, 1984. The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone. (PTI)

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