NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reopen the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.

The court ordered CBI to further probe killing of 3 persons in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Jagdish Tytler was given clean chit.

"We should still believe in the judicial system and the court after it has reopened investigations against Jagdish Tytler," said Tytler's lawyer.

Earlier, in a reprieve to Jagdish Tytler, a Delhi court had let off him in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case after accepting CBI's closure report giving clean chit to him.

The CBI also had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in 2007 and in 2009 claiming there was no evidence against him.

However, challenging the closure report filed by the CBI in 2009, Lakhwinder Kaur, whose husband was killed in the riots, argued that the investigating agency had not recorded the testimonies of two key eyewitnesses who have since the riots moved to the US.

During the arguments on April 4, the CBI prosecutor had sought the dismissal of the plea filed by the victim saying the probe has made it clear that Tytler was not present on November 1, 1984 at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi, where three persons were killed during the riots.

The prosecutor said at the time of the incident, Tytler was at Teen Murti Bhawan, the residence of the then late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of almost 3000 Sikhs, were triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards. — ANI

Mamata says Delhi is not safe, returns to Kolkata

NEW DELHI: An upset West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday cancelled her scheduled meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram to leave for Kolkata, a day after she was gheraoed and her minister Amit Mitra manhandled by Left protesters here.

Speaking to the media, Mamata said, "After 35 years, I have been able to stop a bloodbath in Bengal. Our cadres are peaceful, and all the ruckus is created by CPM cadre," she said of the protests happening across Bengal.

Mamata also said that PM Mammohan Singh had called her up and apologised for the incident.

"Delhi is not safe. I was manhandled. When I tried to get down at the Planning Commission, the police did not cooperate at all," Mamata said.

She said she was unwell and had been advised rest.

Hours after facing the ire of the Left activists at the Planning Commission, Banerjee also cancelled her appointment last evening with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who expressed regret over the incident.

As Mitra was hospitalised at the AIIMS last evening and kept under observation, Singh spoke to Banerjee after her office called up the PMO to cancel the meeting scheduled with him saying she was unwell and her blood pressure had dipped.

The Prime Minister also enquired about her well-being, sources close to the Chief Minister said.

They said the meeting with Chidambaram and a press conference she was to address in the evening have been cancelled.

Banerjee and Mitra were the target of the wrath of CPI-M and its students' wing SFI's activists who were protesting the death of their comrade Sudipta Gupta in police custody in Kolkata last week.

Some Trinamool Congress workers, led by party leader Mukul Roy, also staged a protest gathering at Jantar Mantar here.

Giving a new twist to the incident, Trinamool MP Sukhendu Shekar Roy claimed it was a "murderous attack" on Banerjee.

"It was a murderous attempt on the life of Mamata and three other Cabinet ministers, especially Amit Mitra," Roy told reporters here, adding that it was "a pre-planned attack on the eve of panchayat elections to create a situation, so that the demand for central forces can be justified."

At the same time, he sidestepped questions on the attack by Trinamool Congress activists on CPI (M) offices and workers across West Bengal.

"That is a wild allegation against us. Nowhere in this country during the 34 year misrule of Left Front more than 60,000 innocent people were butchered. Don't compare this incident with that genocide," he said to questions on the attacks by Trinamool Congress activists in Bengal.

Condemning the attack, Roy claimed that the police had remained silent onlookers when CPI-M and SFI activists "roughed up Mitra and no arrests has been made yet."

He claimed that the protest at Planning Commission yesterday was not a demonstration by students as "there were many hired goons above the age of 40."

In the incident, while the Chief Minister was shielded by policemen, it was left to Mitra to face the anger of the activists who were protesting the death of SFI member Sudipta Gupta.

The 65-year-old minister was pushed and jostled around as he tried to enter the Yojna Bhawan building. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports about detention of a 10-year-old rape victim by police in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, when she approached them to lodge a complaint, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the state government.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir expressed its displeasure over the incident in which the girl was detained by the Bulandshahr police when she went to the police station with her parents to lodge a complaint.

“How can the police detain a ten-year-old girl?” the Bench asked.

The Bench has sought an explanation from the state government and asked it to respond on Monday, when it will take up the matter for further hearing.

The incident took place on Sunday when the girl had gone to a general store close to her house to buy some essentials.

She was reportedly taken away by the accused. He raped her and subsequently fled.

When the victim and her parents went to the station for filing a complaint, the girl was kept in the lock-up of the Mahila Thana for several hours.

When the incident came to light, two women constables on duty at the relevant time were suspended while the Mahila Thana in charge Gayashree Chauhan and sub-inspector Sarita Dwivedi, who were first sent to the Reserve Police Lines, were later removed.

On Monday, the Bulandshahr police claimed to have arrested the accused who had allegedly raped the minor. — PTI

Chennai: One person was killed and 33 others injured when 11 bogies of Bangalore-bound Muzaffarpur-Yesvantpur Express derailed at Sitheri, about 90 km from Chennai, early Wednesday morning. 

Vellore Superintendent of Police I Eswaran said one passenger was killed and 33 injured in the mishap. The injured have been admitted to the government hospital at Arakkonam.

The derailment occurred at about 5:50 am, a Railway official said.

Top officials of the Southern Railway visited the spot and commenced an initial probe into the cause of the derailment.

Rail traffic on Arakkonam sector was disrupted. The Railways cancelled about seven trains, including those bound for Bangalore, and diverted some others.

Railway officials have pressed several buses into service to ferry stranded passengers, while at least 200 travellers continued their onward journey to Bangalore by Guwahati Express. — PTI