Court accepts clean chit to Tytler

A Delhi court accepted the CBI’s clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The verdict is likely to be challenged in higher courts. HT reports.

A Delhi court accepted the CBI’s clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

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The court said the statements of two witnesses, who accused Tytler of inciting mobs to kill Sikhs in the aftermath of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assasination, were not reliable.

The verdict is likely to be challenged in higher courts.

Jasbir Singh, a witness from California, made ‘unreliable statements’, while Suriender Singh (who died in July 2009), made “self-contradictory” statements, the court said. HT had reported on September 28, 2009 that before his death, Suriender filed an affidavit in court saying “Tytler is innocent and he is not guilty of any wrong in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots”.

Lakhwinder Kaur, widow of Badal Singh — one of three men killed in Pul Bangash area during the riots — had sought summoning of Tytler or direction to CBI for further investigation. But the court rejected it saying, “this court does not see any requirement for directing further investigation in the present matter."