1984 riots: Delhi High Court gives SIT time till April 23 to respond to plea for action against Kamal Nath

New Delhi, February 6

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked a Special Investigation Team time to file a status report by April 23 on a petition seeking action against senior Congress leader Kamal Nath for his alleged role in a case relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma gave additional time to the SIT after it was informed that the SIT set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs had not yet filed its status report in response to a petition filed by BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

Around 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, had died in the riots in the national capital in the aftermath of assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The case related to a mob of rioters storming the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in the city. Congress leader Nath had previously denied the charges. Sirsa has sought a direction to the SIT to take action against Nath in the FIR lodged in 1984 at the Parliament Street police station. Five persons were named as accused in the case and were allegedly accommodated at Nath’s house. Those accused were discharged due to lack of evidence. However, Nath was never named in the FIR. According to the Home Ministry’s 2019 notification, the SIT has taken up the discharged cases for scrutiny or preliminary enquiry.

The high court had on January 27, 2022 asked the SIT to file a status report on the issue. On Tuesday, counsel for the SIT asked the court for more time to file the report as the records had to be traced.

In September 2019, the SIT decided to reopen seven anti-Sikh riot cases, where the accused were either acquitted or the trial was closed.

The seven anti-Sikh riot cases were registered in 1984 at police stations in Vasant Vihar, Sunlight Colony, Kalyanpuri, Parliament Street, Connaught Place, Patel Nagar, and Shahdara. Sirsa alleged that Nath, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, allegedly gave shelter to five people who were accused in one of the seven cases.

The SIT was set up on February 12, 2015, following a recommendation by the Home Ministry-appointed Justice (retd) G P Mathur committee. The three-member SIT comprises two inspector general-rank IPS officers and a judicial officer. With PTI inputs