CBI plea to let off Tytler for '84 anti-Sikh riots

The Central Bureau of Investigation, on Tuesday, cited statements of witnesses, including an eye-witness Surinder Singh, to a local court in an attempt to justify its closure report in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against former union minister Jagdish Tytler.

The probe agency also played a compact disc, which has been supplied to it by Tytler, in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit, in which Surinder was shown to have denied making any allegation against the Congress leader. CBI prosecutor Sanjay Kumar pointed to three different affidavits given by Surinder at different times to term him as "unreliable".

"Surinder remained silent for 17 years and recorded his statement only in 2001 through an affidavit before Nanawati Commission in which he named Tytler as an accused. However, in later affidavits given on August 5, 2002, and April 7, 2006, he denied making any allegation against Tytler and said he could not comprehend the contents of the first affidavit as it was in English," Kumar submitted.

The CBI, which played the CD in a lap-top during the court proceedings, was vehemently opposed by H S Phoolka, who represented victims' bodies Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee and November' 84 Carnage Justice Committee. "The CBI, instead of doing its own investigation, is relying upon the materials supplied by the accused," he said. Surinder, the eye-witness died on July 13, this year.

The CBI also read out statements of Surinder's relatives and other witnesses like Harinder, Harbhajan, Kuljeet Singh Duggal to reiterate its stand that Tytler was not in the rioting mob around Gurudwara Pulbangash in north Delhi after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. CBI's prosecutor also referred to the denial of the contents of an interview of Surinder by his lawyer which he termed as "distortion" by the news channel.

The court, which is hearing CBI's arguments on its closure report filed against Tytler, put the matter for further proceedings for February 10. CBI had earlier produced a CD before the court to claim that Tytler was present at the residence of Gandhi and not at the riot site. CBI had sought to close the case against Tytler claiming there was no sufficient evidence against him. The alleged role of Tytler in a case relating to the killing of three persons on November one, 1984, in the aftermath of Gandhi's assassination, was re-investigated by CBI after a court had earlier refused to accept a closure report filed by the agency against him in December, 2007.