Centre accepts Justice Dhingra committee report on Delhi Police’s role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots
The Centre recently informed the Supreme Court that it has accepted the report of a committee headed former Delhi High Court judge S N Dhingra implicating several Delhi Police personnel in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and said it would take action accordingly. This submission was made by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta before a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant during the hearing of a petition filed by Gurlad Singh Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, seeking an inquiry into the role of 62 policemen in the riots.
The court had constituted a special investigation team (SIT) on January 11, 2018 headed by Justice Dhingra, retired IPS officer Rajdeep Singh and IPS officer Abhishek Dular, to supervise and further probe the 1984 riots cases. The closure report in the cases had been filed earlier.
The committee report had said one of the Station House Officers (SHO) of the police was complicit with the rioters. It also said the Delhi government, defendants and police did not file the reports in court on time.
The report noted the state authorities only filed their report in 10 cases and these were the 10 FIRs in which all the accused had been acquitted. When Kahlon’s plea came up for hearing, the SG submitted in the apex court that the central government has accepted the Dhingra panel report on the role of many Delhi Police personnel in the riots. R S Suri, the counsel for the petitioner, sought time to file suggestions on the report submitted by the SIT. The court granted the permission for the same.
About the Anti-Sikh Riots of 1984
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The ruling Indian National Congress had been in active complicity with the mob, as to the organisation of the riots. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide, whilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000. The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigative agency, believes that the violence was organised with support from the Delhi police and some central-government officials.
SOURCE: The Hindu
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