The Indian Panorama

Tag: 1984 anti-Sikh riots

  • Sajjan’s sentencing in conviction of twin murders on February 25

    Sajjan’s sentencing in conviction of twin murders on February 25

    NEW DELHI (TIP): A Delhi court on Friday, February 21, reserved its order on the quantum of sentence in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case involving former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was convicted of the murder of Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar on November 1, 1984. The court has scheduled February 25 as the date for sentencing.

    The prosecution has sought the death penalty for Kumar, describing the case as one of the “rarest of the rare”. The victims’ lawyer has also demanded capital punishment for the 79-year-old, who is already serving a life sentence in a separate anti-Sikh riots case. Kumar has been in jail since December 31, 2018, following his conviction and life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in another 1984 riots case.

    On February 12, the court convicted Kumar, and on Friday, it sought a psychiatric and psychological evaluation report from Tihar Jail, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive for cases that may warrant the death penalty.

    The prosecution alleged that a large mob, armed with deadly weapons, carried out widespread looting, arson and violence against Sikhs in retaliation for the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The mob reportedly attacked the complainant’s house, killed Jaswant and Tarundeep, looted valuables and set the house on fire. The complainant’s counsel described the crime as genocide and cold-blooded murder, alleging that Kumar led the mob and incited the violence.

    Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts, while convicting Kumar, stated, “In light of the evidence on record, considered in its totality, I am of the opinion that the prosecution has been able to prove its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.”

    Kumar has been convicted of multiple charges, including murder, rioting, dacoity, attempting to cause death or grievous hurt and arson as part of an unlawful assembly.

    The anti-Sikh riots, which erupted following Indira’s assassination, resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs.
    (Source: TNS)

  • Perusal of SIT report shows ‘sham’ trials conducted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, SC told

    Perusal of SIT report shows ‘sham’ trials conducted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, SC told

    New Delhi (TIP)- The Supreme Court was told on Thursday, November 3,  that a perusal of a report filed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) shows that “sham” trials have been conducted in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for petitioner S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, referred to the SIT report filed on November 29, 2019, and stated that the manner in which trials have been conducted shows that the whole system has failed. Citing the report, Phoolka said a perusal of cases shows that in one of the FIRs while police after clubbing various cases sent a challan regarding the killing of 56 people. However, the trial court framed charges only in the killing of five persons and no charge was framed in respect of the remaining, he said. “It is not known why charges were framed only for five murders and not 56 murders and why trial court did not order separation of trial for each incident of crime,” Phoolka read from the report. The top court said it will go through the report and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks. It had earlier issued notice to parties on a plea of Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, seeking inquiry into role of 62 policemen named in the riots. The apex court had constituted the SIT headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice S N Dhingra to supervise further probe into the 1986 riots’ cases, in which closure reports had been filed earlier. The SIT also has its members retired IPS officer Rajdeep Singh and IPS officer Abhishek Dular. However, it currently has only two members as Singh had declined to be a part of the team on “personal grounds”. Large-scale riots had broken out in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on the morning of October 31, 1984. The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.

  • Special team probing Kanpur’s 1984 anti-Sikh riots to send officials to Punjab

    Special team probing Kanpur’s 1984 anti-Sikh riots to send officials to Punjab

    New Delhi (TIP)- The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to re-investigate the anti-Sikh riots in Kanpur following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, will send a team of three sub-inspectors and three constables to Punjab. The team will gather statements and further investigate some of the witnesses.

    If needed, witnesses will be brought to Uttar Pradesh and their statements recorded again, officials told India Today TV. Arrests will be made soon on the administration’s orders after the statements are recorded. The SIT has identified 67 accused in 11 cases so far. The SIT has handed over the list of the accused to the government. And they will be arrested as soon as the order is received, they said.

    127 Sikhs were killed in Kanpur in the riots of 1984. 40 cases were registered in Kanpur Nagar for murder, robbery and dacoity. The police had submitted the final report in 29 of these cases. Earlier, the SIT had recorded statements and searched the archives by meeting members of the victims’ families in different states. In these cases, 146 rioters were identified, of whom 79 are dead. Although, of the 67 alive, nearly 22 are over the age of 75 or are suffering from serious diseases, the officials added.

  • 70 years as Republic- where does India stand today?

    I am more likely to think as a common man rather than come out with a scholarly and pedantic analysis. I shall not go in to the  nitty gritty of figures or make a presentation through graphs to exhibit gains and losses because these have only confounded the common man. I leave that to a Narendra Modi or a Nirmala Seetharaman.  I shall be more interested in talking about where India stands when it comes to the people of India and their rights as human beings.

     

    For every Indian it was a bliss to be alive on 26th January 1950 when the Constitution of Secular India came in to being. For him it was a day when he was promised certain fundamental rights. Readers may please look into the Preamble to the Constitution of India. It is a day when every Indian felt he was going to see a new sunrise. It is a day that promised every single man, woman and child in India end of inequality and exploitation. It is a day that held the prospect of end to bigotry. It is the day that spoke of end of illiteracy. It is a day our leaders described as the day of a new awakening. It is a day of new life of liberty and freedom-the most cherished goals of every human being anywhere in the world. Indians bowed their heads in gratitude before the framers of the Constitution, led by the brilliant Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar. They felt they were just about to enter the Promised Land.

    Behind the veil of all external growth, all seeming progress, there is decadence in India. To the common people, equality is a word  in Dr. Ambedkar’s Constitution of India,  not the practice. How can one claim there is equality in India when the majority still is caught in the grinding machine of illiteracy, ignorance and poverty? How can one feel proud of the growing economic stature of the country (India will be a 5 Trillion economy by 2024 and an  economic super power by 2050 or even earlier) when one does not get two square meals, is without a home and has neither a present nor a future?

    70 years of Republic and we still have not been able to ensure justice to our people. “Might is Right” holds true in the land of the Buddha, Nanak and Gandhi. From far flung hamlets to the city, it is the might that rules. Even the politicians who are supposed to act as the custodians of the Constitution subscribe to the dictum. Dalits and minorities are at the receiving end. A case in point is the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and elsewhere in India. Ten thousand Sikh men, women and children were butchered in cold blood then. Thousands of Sikh women became widows. Thousands of children became orphans.

    And, imagine,  36 years after the horrendous  crime was committed against humanity, the perpetrators of crime have managed to go scot free and move freely. The prosecutors have turned in to defense lawyers. I am referring to CBI that gave a “clean chit” to Jagdish Tytler, the prime accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. On top of it, the  accused like Jagdish Tytler enjoy the comfort and power of ministerial gaddis. “Might is right”.

    Another case in point is detention of hundreds in various jails in India who were picked up during the dark days of militancy in Punjab. They have been held prisoners for years together without a trial. One never knows whether they will ever experience freedom from the frightening four walls of the prisons hey have been put in to.

    Look at all the cases being reported every day of  rape of dalit women, the police brutality, the gangsters’ reign, the highhandedness of government officials, the loot the politicians engage in day in and day out. Law seems to have taken leave of the country.

    The Non-resident Indians have been voicing similar  concern at the lawlessness in the country when many pointed out that their property in India was being grabbed by unscrupulous elements and many had been framed in false criminal cases. They pointed accusing finger at the police and civil officials who connived with criminals to rob the NRI’s of their legitimate property. How can government of India expect the NRI’s to come forward to invest in the country when they feel insecure? Law is on leave, probably a long leave?

    Where is Equality promised in the Constitution of the Republic of India? Where is Freedom? Where is Justice?

    Let us on this Republic Day ask ourselves these questions, for the sake of the Republic of India.

    SATYAMEV JAYATE!

     

  • Indian Origin Assailants of Akali Dal Leader Manjit Singh GK Arrested

    Indian Origin Assailants of Akali Dal Leader Manjit Singh GK Arrested

    Parminder S Aujla

    SACRAMENTO(TIP): The Sutter County police arrested Jasbir Singh and his son, Gagandeep Singh on September 12, in connection with assault on Akali Dal leader Manjit Singh GK in a Yuba City Sikh Temple on August 25.

    Manjit Singh GK was attacked amid chants of ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ by pro-Khalistan supporters in Yuba City in Northern California on August 25 where he had gone to pay obeisance to the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib.

    Releasing a statement immediately after the incident, Manjit Singh GK said,” I had come to Yuba city Gurudwara with other devotees. We had come here to pay our obeisance. Around 20-25 men entered the Gurudwara premises and attacked me. Considering the situation and respecting the sanctity of the Gurudwara I told my supporter to not react to such elements. Despite the brutality with which they have attacked me, I am absolutely fine”.

    Earlier in August, Manjit Singh GK was attacked by a group of Khalistan supporters. The first incident took place in New York where he and his family members were attacked. Minutes after the incident, Manjit Singh posted the video of the incident which took place when he had come out of a TV studio after participating in a debate.

     “A group of people attacked me and my relatives in New York. This will not scare me away from my path to serve the community. I have fought, and I will fight till my last breath. Such cowardly incidents do not scare me,” Manjit Singh tweeted.

    Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has alleged that the men who were behind the attacks have links with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI. She also added that these attackers enjoy the support of senior Congress leader and the accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, Jagdish Tytler.

     “Heads of ‘Sikhs for Justice’ who are direct beneficiaries of ISI, and who work on their orders and are supported by those who are in direct touch with the likes of Jagdish Tytler, and Jasbir Singh and his son Gagandeep Singh, were seen attacking him (Manjit Singh GK). Jasbir Singh is the same person who has spent three months in jail for trying to intimidate an eyewitness against Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 massacre”, she said.

  • ’84 anti-Sikh riots: New SIT fails to start work as member’s position remains vacant

    ’84 anti-Sikh riots: New SIT fails to start work as member’s position remains vacant

    NEW DELHI(TIP): A new SIT headed which was set up in January this year to further investigate 186 cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases in Delhi, has failed to start its work, the Supreme Court was informed on Thursday.

    Counsel for the petitioner who has been instrumental in getting the order for a fresh SIT probe told a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that a member’s position was vacant in the SIT headed by former Delhi High Court judge SN Dhingra.

     The SIT which is to probe 186 cases closed by the police, has yet to commence its work despite the court’s order to submit its first report in August, the petitioner’s counsel told the Bench.

    CJI Misra said he was aware of the matter and he would soon look into it.

    The Centre had on February 5 told the Supreme Court that ex-IPS officer Rajdeep Singh has refused to be a part of the new SIT and he would be replaced by former Indian Police Bureau Director General of Police NR Wasan. Serving IPS officer Abhishek Dular is the third member of the SIT.

    Justice Dhingra was a trial judge when punishments were handed out in 1990s to the accused of the Trilokpuri massacre of 1984. Kishori Lal, dubbed as the ‘butcher of Trilokpuri’, was among those sentenced by him.

    Almost 3,000 people were killed, most of them in Delhi, in the anti-Sikh riots that broke out following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

     The Bench had in January noted that the previous SIT had not carried out further probe into these 186 cases in which closure reports were filed. It had taken the decision after perusing the report of a two-judge supervisory panel which scrutinized 241 cases relating to 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi closed by an earlier SIT formed by the NDA government for re-investigation.

     Submitted on December 6, the report of the supervisory committee comprising Justice JM Panchal and Justice KSP Radhakrishnan was perused by the court.

     The court had already made it clear that it would not reopen cases in which accused had been acquitted.

     It had assigned the task of examining the said 241 cases closed by SIT to the supervisory committee which was to make recommendations as to whether the cases were rightly closed or not.

    Counsel for the petitioner who has been instrumental in getting the order for a fresh SIT probe told a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that a member’s position was vacant in the SIT headed by former Delhi High Court judge SN Dhingra.

     The SIT which is to probe 186 cases closed by the police, has yet to commence its work despite the court’s order to submit its first report in August, the petitioner’s counsel told the Bench.

    It had assigned the task of examining the said 241 cases closed by SIT to the supervisory committee which was to make recommendations as to whether the cases were rightly closed or not.

     More than two years after the Narendra Modi government set up the SIT to re-investigate serious anti-Sikh riots cases of 1984 that had been closed, it has managed to file charge sheets only in very small number of cases taken up for further probe.

  • Supreme Court seeks response from Sajjan Kumar in 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases

    Supreme Court seeks response from Sajjan Kumar in 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases

    The Supreme Court on Thursday sought response from Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, on a plea filed by SIT challenging the anticipatory bail granted to him by Delhi HC. The apex court said it is high time that these cases are tried at the earliest

    NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Court on July 5 sought response from Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, on a plea filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) challenging the anticipatory bail granted to him by Delhi high court.

    A bench of Justice AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said it is high time that these cases are tried at the earliest.

    The bench said it was an over 30- year-old case and it took around “200 pages” for the high court to grant anticipatory bail when it could have been done in just “40-50 pages”.

    Additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for the SIT, said the investigation started against Kumar only in 2016 and now he has come armed with a battery of lawyers and dictates his statement to the investigating officer of the case.

    The ASG said that while granting anticipatory bail to him, the high court had said that everything will be tested in trial of the case but at the end it granted him the relief saying there was no evidence.

    To this, the bench said whether all this was considered at the time of anticipatory bail. Singh said, “Yes. This is totally contrary to the established procedure of law.” The bench then issued notice.

    The Delhi HC had on February 22 upheld a trial court order granting anticipatory bail to Kumar in two anti- Sikh riots cases of 1984, saying that according to records, he was available throughout the investigation.

    The Congress leader was granted anticipatory bail by the trial court on December 21, 2016, in two cases of killing of three Sikhs during the riots which had occurred after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

    Kumar had submitted that his name was never taken earlier and it was a case of fresh allegations coming up after 32 years.

    Source: PTI