CBI presents evidence to back its decision to acquit Jagdish Tytler in the case
CBI presents evidence to back its decision to acquit Jagdish Tytler in the case
The ghost of 1984 anti-Sikh riot is refusing to let the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) rest in peace.
After the top investigation agency gave a clean chit to former Union minister Jagdish Tytler, it is now struggling to gather evidence to justify the closure report of the case.
On Tuesday, the CBI again mentioned the statement of one of the eye witnesses in the case besides producing a compact disc to prove Tytler was not involved in the riot. The investigating agency had in fact played the CD in the court room. The CD contained footage of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's residence and showed Tytler was present there when the rioting took place. Interestingly, Surinder Singh, the eye witness, had also filed an affidavit stating Tytler had no role in the riots.
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Surinder, who was also one of the eye witnesses to have alleged Tytler's role in the rioting, reverted on his stand by filing two affidavits in 2002 and 2007. The CBI counsel, Sanjay Kumar, while pointing to the three different affidavits, termed Surinder "unreliable." He said, "Surinder remained silent for 17 years and recorded his statement only in 2001 through an affidavit before the Nanawati Commission in which he named Tytler as an accused".
"However, in later affidavits submitted 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 said.
Meanwhile, counsel of the victims HS Phoolka thrashed the CBI's stand on the case. "The CBI, instead of doing its own investigation, is relying upon the materials supplied by the accused," he said. Surinder died in July this year.u00a0u00a0
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Loud and clear: Protests against rioteers are regularly organised in the city |
The CBI also read out statements by Surinder's relatives and other witnesses to reiterate its stand that Tytler was not part of the rioting mob around gurdwara Pulbangash in north Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
The court was hearing the grounds on which the CBI filed a closure report against the charges on Tytler and gave a date for the next hearing in the month of February next year.
