NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
The Justice Nanavati Commission, which is probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has summoned Union Home Secretary Kamal Pandey to make a statement regarding the non-availability of records pointing to the delay in the deployment of the Army to quell the riots.
Observations about such a delay were made in the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission report. Though the government has submitted all the findings of the Misra Commission to Justice Nanavati, some documents which point to the government bungling in the Army's deployment are missing.
The Nanavati Commission has also asked the Centre to file an affidavit detailing the movements of the then home minister P V Narsimha Rao during the riots.
The summons to Pandey follow an application by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee pointing out that some important records pertaining to the Misra Commission, including the statements of then Chief of Army Staff General A S Vaidya; Commanding Officer of 15, Sikh Light Infantry Major J S Sandhu; and the GOC of Delhi Area were missing from the material submitted by the Centre to the Nanavati Commission.
The Union home secretary has been asked to make a statement explaining the reasons for the non-availability of the records which ''would have destroyed the arguments of the then Congress government that the violence could not be controlled due to non-availability of the Army.''
The application had apprehended that the statements of these important witnesses might have been destroyed as they revealed that the 15, Sikh Infantry Battalion reached Delhi from Meerut immediately after the riots broke out but was asked to go back to the cantonment as the army had no orders to move in.
Earlier, the home ministry had filed a list and stated that it had submitted the complete records of the Misra Commission before Justice Nanavati.
The home ministry counsel has now said that he would like to inspect the records already placed before the Nanavati Commission and then file an affidavit.
In response to an earlier application of the DSGMC that the Centre should place on record all the meetings held by Narasimha Rao during the riots so as to reveal what he did to stop the violence, the Centre has been asked to file a reply within a week.
The next hearing of the Commission would be held on April 12.
UNI
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
