HC rejects Jagdish Tytler's plea for early hearing

The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to stay the Central Bureau of Investigation probe against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anit-Sikh riots case and declined to entertain his plea for an early hearing of his appeal against the trial court's order for investigation.

A bench of Justice V P Vaish, before whom Tytler's plea challenging the CBI court order for reopening the probe against him is pending, refused to grant stay.

It also rejected Tytler's plea for fixing his appeal for hearing in March considering the elections and fixed the hearing for April 17.

On April 10, a trial court had ordered that the case be reopened against Tytler and also set aside the CBI closure report which gave the Delhi Congress leader a clean chit on the ground that there was "no evidence" against him.

The trial court's order had come on a plea filed by riot victim Lakhwinder Kaur who sought a further probe into the killing of three persons near Gurdwara Pul Bangash in old Delhi.

Tytler is accused of instigating a mob that led to the murder of three men who had taken shelter at the Gurdwara on November 1, 1984. The mob attack was part of violence against Sikhs after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Three men Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh were killed near Gurudwara Pul Bangash. Tytler's role in the killing of the three men was re-investigated by the CBI after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept the agency's closure report.

The CBI had claimed before the trial court that Tytler was at Teen Murti House, the residence India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, where Indira Gandhi's body was kept, at the time of the Pul Bangash incident.

It added the agency had already re-investigated the case on the order of a trial court but there was insufficient evidence against Tytler.  Tytler was given a clean chit by the CBI on April 2, 2009.