New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Central government to file a fresh status report within two weeks on the status of trials in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The matter came up before a bench comprising justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih.
During the hearing, additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, contended before the bench that recommendations of the special investigation team, set up by the top court, were carried out.
A counsel, representing one of the petitioners’, referring to some glaring instances in the SIT report, submitted that 500 cases were clubbed in one FIR and stressed that it is not possible for the investigating officer to probe them.
The counsel submitted that there were many instances where 498 cases were clubbed in one FIR and the investigating officer had to investigate all of them. The counsel said initially the court felt that it should be confined to Delhi only, and added that no action has been taken regarding incidents in other states. “We have given examples of Kanpur, Bokaro, etc., nothing has happened," he said.
The bench said the court would look into all these aspects and asked Bhati to file an affidavit and permitted the petitioners in the case to file detailed objections. Following former PM Indira Gandhi's assassination, by her bodyguards in 1984, Delhi witnessed large-scale violence and killings of persons from the Sikh community.
In May 2023, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler for his alleged role in the killings of three people on November 1, 1984.
