New Delhi:The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned former Congress MP Jagdish Tytler to give his voice sample in connection with one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. The agency is investigating riots at Gurudwara Pul-bangash in North Delhi, where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi. The CBI has given a clean chit to Tytler thrice in the case, but the court in 2015 directed the agency to investigate the matter further.
Tytler appeared before the agency and was taken to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Delhi to give his voice sample. According to sources, the CBI found fresh evidence in the 39-year-old riots case, making it necessary to collect Tytler's voice sample. The Congress leader is accused of inciting a mob that murdered the victims. The agency will use the sample to match it with a voice recording from the riots.
Tytler has denied any role in the riots during questioning by the CBI. He argues that the charges against him have not been proven. However, he was named in a report of the Nanavati Commission, which probed the anti-Sikh riots. Tytler has long been an embarrassment for the Congress, which has been accused by the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal or SAD, and other rivals of shielding its leaders accused in the anti-Sikh riots.
The assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 after her controversial "Operation Blue Star" led to violent attacks on the Sikh community in the country. At least 3,000 people were killed in the riots, and independent sources estimate the number at 8,000, including at least 3,000 in Delhi.
In 2018, the BJP filed a complaint demanding Tytler's arrest after a Sikh organization released a video claiming it shows him saying "I killed 100 Sikhs." Tytler, who was once a formidable leader of the Congress in Delhi, became a minister in the Manmohan Singh government in 2004 but had to quit in a firestorm of protests.
Another riot-accused Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, was sentenced to life in jail by the Delhi High Court, which cancelled an earlier court order letting him off. However, Kamal Nath, another Congress leader whose name came up in witness accounts, was picked by then-party president Rahul Gandhi as Madhya Pradesh chief minister in 2018, leading to fresh rounds of protests against the grand old party. Kamal Nath continues to be a top Congress leader, prominently visible in all party activities.
The CBI re-investigated the killing of three people - Badal Singh, Thakur Singh, and Gurcharan Singh - near the gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report. The court said it would monitor the probe every two months so that every aspect of the matter was investigated.
