OPINION: 1984 riots- Role of CBI exposed

With the order by Delhi Additional Sessions Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj to reopen 1984 riots case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, the role of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stand has been exposed for investigating killing of three persons near Gurdwara Pulbangash on November 1, 1984, after the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

Go anywhere in the world and you can find Sikhs. Proud in their turbans and usually a happy go lucky attitude to life combined with determination to excel have set this community apart. It is almost three decades after the massacre of thousands of Sikhs, is the community feeling like the country has let them down?  The violence in Delhi was triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime-minister of India, on October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards in response to her actions authorising the military operation. The Government of India reported 2,700 deaths in the ensuing chaos. 

The 1984 riots left deep scars and more than 10 commissions and committees later, little justice has been given to the thousands of families of the victims. Young mothers and fathers have now become grandparents. An entire generation has come of age. They all pray for justice but the wheels have turned ever so slowly.

The court had already rejected the clean chit to Jagdish Tytler in 2007 which was a big question mark on the integrity of the working of the CBI especially on its failure to record the statement of the witnesses who had seen Tytler at the spot of incident on that day, which is frustrating the people as it took more than a one-fourth of decade to establish the identity of the accused.  Perhaps, it is a record in the history of the country that even after about three decades of the incident, the case is still undecided.

The doubtful integrity of the CBI speaks itself from the fact that without examining the prime witnesses in a professional manner, a clean chit was given to the Jagdish Tytler.

There are number of questions for which the riot victims are waiting a reply from the government end. Still, there is no guarantee that the CBI will be able to do justice to the job this time?  How the riot victims would get justice under all such circumstances?

Both, for the sake of riot victim’s families and to maintain the image of the CBI in the eyes of the citizens of the nation, the agency must do justice to the job.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of City Air News.)