1984 riots: Delhi Court frames murder charge against Jagdish Tytler

A Delhi court on Friday framed charges of murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between different groups, criminal trespass and theft against Congress leader and former minister Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Special Judge Rakesh Siyal, who had on August 30 said there was sufficient ground to proceed against the accused, directed Tytler to face trial after he pleaded “not guilty” to the offences.

The case against Tytler relates to murder of three persons in the Pul Bangash area here during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Around 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, had died in the riots in Delhi in the aftermath of assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. Three persons were killed and a gurdwara was torched in the Pul Bangash area on November 1, 1984.

In its chargesheet filed on May 20, the CBI said Tytler “incited, instigated and provoked” the mob that had assembled at Pul Bangash Gurdwara in Azad Market on November 1, 1984, that resulted in the burning down of the shrine and killing of three Sikhs — Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Guru Charan Singh. The offence entails the maximum punishment of death penalty in the rarest of rare cases. Tytler came out of a white car in front of Gurdwara Pul Bangash and instigated the mob against the community, leading to the ‘murder’ of three persons, the CBI alleged on the basis of a statement made by a witness.

Another senior Delhi Congress leader and former MP Sajjan Kumar is already serving life imprisonment for the “remainder of his natural life” after being convicted by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018. The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment related to the killing of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar part-I area in Palam Colony in Delhi on November 1-2, 1984. (With PTI Inputs)