The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to
file a fresh status report within two weeks on the status of trials in the 1984
anti-Sikh riots.
A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and
Augustine George Masih asked additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati to
file an affidavit and permitted the petitioners in the case to file detailed
objections.
During the hearing, Bhati said recommendations of
the special investigation team, set up by the top court, were carried out.
A counsel appearing for one of the petitioners
submitted there were some glaring instances in the SIT report and said 500
cases were clubbed in one FIR and the investigating officer could not probe
them.
"There were many instances where 498 cases were
clubbed in one FIR and IO had to investigate all of them. Initially when the
hearing began, the court felt that it should be confined to Delhi only. But we
have done nothing about other states. We have given examples of Kanpur, Bokaro,
etc., nothing has happened," he said.
The top court assured it will look into all these
aspects.
Delhi witnessed large-scale violence and killings of
persons from the Sikh community following former PM Indira Gandhi's
assassination by her bodyguards in 1984 and the cases stemming from the
incident have seen some major twists and turns 40 years on.
According to those at the forefront of the legal
fight on behalf of the victims and their kin, while there have been significant
milestones -- reopening of cases and prosecution of political heavyweights --
the road to justice is a long one.
According to the Nanavati Commission Report, there
were a total 587 FIRs registered in Delhi in relation to 1984 riots that
witnessed 2,733 people being killed. Of the total, the police shut about 240
cases as "untraced" and about 250 cases resulted in acquittals.
However, it was only in May 2023 that the central
probe agency the CBI filed a chargesheet against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler
for his alleged role in the killings of three people on November 1, 1984.
The CBI alleged Tytler "incited, instigated and
provoked the mob assembled at Pul Bangash Gurdwara Azad Market area in the
national capital on November 1, 1984. The incident resulted in the burning down
of the gurdwara and killing of Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Guru Charan Singh.