Dehra Dun, January 19
Without naming Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, CBI director Vijay Shanker today asserted that the agency would submit the report to the apex court after obtaining the witness of US-based Jasbir Singh in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
“We are still trying to get in touch with him to record his witness and then corroborate it,” he told The Tribune after inauguration of the new CBI office building here.
Claiming complete objectivity and transparency in the investigation into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case handed to the premier investigating agency by the apex court, he said the witness in question appeared strangely after the court’s decision. No witness reported to the agency during the pendency of the investigation.
Much to the embarrassment of the premier investigating agency, the case took a new turn with appearance of this witness alleging involvement of Tytler in provoking the mob against the members of the Sikh community after killing of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The said witness has since been living in the US.
The CBI director rued the witness chose to go to the media instead of the agency which followed up the development by first trying to contact him at his place in the US but he was not available. “We later tried to talk to him but instead he insisted that we should talk to his lawyer. The latter also responded negatively. The family of the witness has also been non-cooperative,” he claimed.
The witness, according to him, maintained that he would not come to India due to fear of life. “But we have not given up. I don’t think situation in the country has come to a pass that anybody has any ground to fear in the context of judicial process,” he said reiterating complete impartiality on part of the agency.
