Video proof may help Tytler

The Central Bureau of Investigation has submitted records of a video footage to a metropolitan court that “conclusively establishes” Tytler’s absence from the scene of rioting that day, report Abhishek Sharan and Sumit Saxena.

It is said to be a piece of scientific evidence that could justify the clean chit Jagdish Tytler got in an anti-Sikh rioting case of 1984.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted records of a video footage to a metropolitan court that “conclusively establishes” Tytler’s absence from the scene of rioting that day.

The court is hearing a case involving the murder of three Sikhs in Pul Bangash on November 1, 1984.

A senior CBI source, who requested anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to media, told HT: “This video footages established the fact that Jagdish Tytler was on November 1, 1984, present through the day at Teen Murti Bhavan where the body of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was kept after her assassination a day earlier.”

The video footage is contained in six DVDs and detail Tytler’s movements on the day. “Tytler had arrived in Delhi from Lucknow that day and then he went to 1, Safdarjung Road. Later he accompanied late PM Rajiv Gandhi in an Ambassador car to Teen Murti Bhavan,” the source added.

“While rioting was on at Pul Bangash gurdwara, Tytler was at Teen Murti Bhavan, so how do we establish that he was involved in the three murders?” the source asked.

“As directed by the court, we have submitted a written detail of this video footage as an annexure to our cancellation report earlier submitted by us, but we will submit the actual video footage contained in a CD to the court soon, may be at the next hearing in April-end,” he added.

The prosecution team, said the source, will corroborate the CD’s contents by submitting “testimonies from Congress leaders and former/current parliamentarians who were at Teen Murti Bhavan on the day and had seen Tytler there”.

CBI sources said the agency had accessed the video footage from Doordarshan News that had shown a “live telecast” on the day as dignitaries and the public visited Teen Murti Bhavan to pay their last respects to the late Prime Minister.

The CBI has requested additional chief metropolitan magistrate Rakesh Pandit to play the CD in the court.

The court had asked the agency to re-investigate the case to probe charges against Tytler alleging his presence at the scene of rioting that day based on submissions made by two case witnesses, Jasbir Singh and Giani Surendra Singh.