New Delhi, January 14
The CBI, under constant attack for deciding to close the 1984 anti-Sikh riot case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, today had no option but to furnish an undertaking to the Delhi High Court that the case against him will not be closed.

The agency sought time to file an appropriate reply to crucial witness Jasbir Singh’s application for recording of his statement in a US court after Mr Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to it.

Additional solicitor-general P.P. Malhotra recorded a statement on behalf of the CBI before the court to this effect after he was grilled why the agency was apprehensive about recording Jasbir Singh’s evidence either through the video conferencing or sending a team there.

The court further asked Malhotra how the CBI had decided to close the case without exploring the feasibility of examining Jasbir Singh, who is claiming to be a crucial witness in the case.

What was the difficulty for the CBI to examine him and why his statement could not be recorded through video conferencing in the Indian embassy, the court asked.

The additional solicitor-general said the agency would examine the matter and needed some more time to make its stand clear and file a reply accordingly.

For now the court could record his statement that the case would not be closed, he said.

Jasbir Singh, presently living in California, last week had filed a petition in the court expressing his willingness to record the statement in a US court.

The CBI came under fire from the high court after the trial judge had rejected its closure report last month against Tytler as it had said Jasbir Singh was not traceable whereas he had been giving interviews to TV channels and newspapers in California after they had tracked down him there.

After he was seen giving interviews to TV channels, the trial court had directed the CBI to reinvestigate the case and record his statement as per the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

After being reprimanded by the trail court, the CBI had issued notice to Jasbir Singh insisting that he should come to India to record his statement at the agency’s headquarters in the Capital.

“If the CBI is really serious and interested in investigating the case and recording the statement of the witness petitioner, then it should have moved under Section 166A (1),” Jasbir Singh’s counsel Navkiran Singh said.

The section allows NRIs to testify in a foreign court on the request of probe agency.