1984 riots: Supreme Court directs CBI to probe CDs submitted in case by Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management

A Delhi court on Thursday directed the CBI to probe two compact discs submitted by Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management committee in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler was given clean chit for his alleged role.

The court also pulled up the CBI for slow pace of investigation since December 2015, when it was directed to further probe the matter, and ordered the agency's Superintendent of Police to file a status report by February 24, senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the 1984 riots victims, said.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Arora also directed the probe agency to find out whether the polygraph test of controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma, a witness in the case, can be conducted at a army hospital here.

Tytler had denied his role in the riots, but the court ordered further investigation despite the CBI having submitted closure reports in the case thrice in the past. The victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI's closure reports in the case.

The court had earlier appointed former Director of Prosecution B S Joon as its commissioner to oversee the polygraph test of  Verma, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

In his application, Verma had sought setting up a panel of eminent persons, including a judicial officer, to observe the proceedings during the test.

Verma, who has been undergoing polygraph test at the government-run forensic science laboratory at Rohini in West Delhi, alleged in his application to the court that officials of the FSL were holding a "mini trial" and acting in an "unfair and biased" manner.

While Tytler, who has been given clean-chit thrice by the CBI in the riots case, has refused to undergo the lie detector test, Verma gave conditional consent if he was provided round-the-clock security claiming threat to his life. The court had on August 2 last year asked the CBI to conduct the test on Verma.

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The case relates to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The agency had reinvestigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report.