New Delhi, April 20
Retired Supreme Court judge G.T. Nanavati, who probed the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, has asked the government to reopen cases against a “few politicians” saying investigation against them was not “properly carried out”.

“Some of the cases were not probed properly and it needs re-examination,” Nanavati, who presented his 185-page report on the killings in February, told IANS in an interview.

Speaking out for the first time since submitting his report, the man who is also heading the commission investigating the Gujarat riots of 2002, however, refused to name the cases that he thought required a fresh probe.

“I have submitted my report to the government. It is up to the government to act,” the 70-year-old justice said.

In its five-year tenure, the Nanavati Commission examined many Congress party leaders, including Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, former Central Minister Vasant Sathe and Sajjan Kumar, MP.

Former minister H.K.L. Bhagat was also linked to the riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards here on October 31, 1984. Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the violence.

Bhagat did not appear before the Commission, citing poor health.

Significantly, three earlier panels set up by the government — Jain-Banerjee Committee, Poti-Rosha Committee and Jain-Aggarwal Committee — had recommended that cases be registered against Sajjan Kumar.

On the question of whether the riots were organised, Nanavati said: “It was planned to the extent that Sikh houses were identified and targeted. The rioters knew their houses.”

He dismissed suggestions that the riots were “pre-planned”.

Sources in the Commission, however, pointed out that the evidence presented did “indicate a pattern in which the riots took place” and a “pattern in which the attacks” took place against the Sikhs.

Nanavati, who is also probing the post-Godhra Gujarat riots along with retired justice K.G. Shah, further pointed out that there was dereliction of duty on the part of Delhi Police.

“Yes, there was dereliction of duty but some police officers have either been suspended or punished.”

Nanavati submitted his report to Home Minister Shivraj Patil in February this year.

While Volume I of his report details the discussions of events in the aftermath of Gandhi’s killing, Volume II covers the evidence presented before the Commission.

The government has promised to table the Nanavati report along with an Action Taken Report (ATR) in the current budget session of parliament.

The Commission, set up in May 2002 by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, was asked to go into the causes and course of the riots targeting Sikhs and find out if the riots could have been averted and whether they took place on account of any lapses or dereliction of duty.