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1984 anti-Sikh riots

 

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NRI Jasbir, key witness

San Francisco, Dec. 20, 2007
Ravninder Sahota/Gary Singh

CBI gave a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler on September 29, claiming that the key witness Jasbir Singh is untraceable or whereabouts of Singh, who had allegedly heard Tytler inciting a mob to kill sikhs. This announcement made Jasbir very upset and through his lawyer he started to give interview to press media

 

 

 

 

Exclusive Interview with Jasbir Singh:

He told NRIpress ( Dec. 19, 2007 at about 6pm):

  • I was always willing to testify against Jagdish Tytler if my safety is guaranteed.
  • I am willing to record my statement with the agency.
  • I saw Tytler inciting the mob outside the hospital at the Kinsway camp and Tytler said to the mob:
    • "Because of you, I am ashamed to look at Sajjan Kumar constituency in the north or HKL Bhagat's constituency in the east, Colony after colony of Sikhs have been destroyed but in my area so few sikhs have been killed. I had promised that maximum sikhs would be killed in my colony.......
  • Congress leaders like HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Tytler were responsible for the massacre of Sikhs.
  • CBI officers should come to California to take my statement or as the court is now saying my testimony should be taken via video conferencing.
  • In my close family, 26 relative had been killed in 1984 Anti-Sikh Program. Most of them belong to my father side and my wife side ....Click here
  • NRIpress representative ask him, can he go to India for testify ?
    • He said I will be killed there by any means, so it is better to CBI to come here and through the consulate general of India they should prepare all my testimony.
    • If somebody had the power to kill my 26 relatives, should I believe again that I would be spared as a witness.

Court ordered reinvestigation into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
NRI Jasbir willing to record his statement with the CBI

Los Angeles, Dec. 19, 2007
Ravninder Sahota/Gary Singh

On Dec.18, Delhi court ordered CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) to reinvestigate Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's role in inciting mobs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and submit its report by Jan 15.

Sanjeev Jain, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate also asked the the CBI to find out the role of Jasbir Singh, said to be a key witness against Tytler.

The case relates to an incident on November 1, 1984 when a mob had set afire Gurudwara Pulbangash killing three persons.

On September 29, the investigating agency had filed a report that giving a clean chit to Tytler and claiming that the whereabouts of Singh, who had allegedly heard Tytler inciting a mob to kill sikhs after the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was not known as he was settled in the United States.

WHO IS JASBIR SINGH

  • Jasbir Singh is a witness to the Nov 1, 1984 incident when a mob had set on fire the Gurdwara Pulbangash in north Delhi killing three people.
  • He had told the Nanavati commission on August 31, 2000 that “he had overheard Tytler rebuking his men on the night of November 3, 1984... For nominal killing of sikhs in his constituency”

The Nanavati Commission:

  • The Nanavati Commission was constituted to look into the riots, had claimed evidence against Congress leaders Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and H.K.L. Bhagat for instigating the mobs to violence after two Sikh bodyguards assassinated then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
  • The case in the Gurdwara Pulbangash case was registered on the basis of affidavits filed before the Nanavati Commission.

Senior counsel H.S. Phoolka:

  • The senior counsel H.S. Phoolka, representing Sikh organisations, furnished Jasbir Singh's address and said that the latter had expressed a desire to come forward to record his testimony in the case.
  • The court has rejected the clean chit given by the CBI to Tytler
  • The court has directed the CBI to carry out further investigation and then file a fresh report. We will now ask the CBI to send him (Jasbir Singh) a questionnaire or ask for the affidavit from America or go for video conferencing. His coming to India is not necessary
  • On December, 06, he furnished the address of Singh, trashing the claim of CBI that his whereabouts were unknown.

Jasbir Singh's counsel Navkiran Singh said:

  • The case has now been reopened
  • The court has taken into consideration the fact that the CBI was not recording Jasbir Singh's statement though he was ready to answer all questions.
  • Singh's version could be very well recorded by the CBI through video-conferencing from the Indian high commission in San Francisco.

CBI response:

  • Counsel Sanjay Kumar said that it was ready to record Singh's statement but the witness had to appear before the agency so that his claims could be corroborated.

 

 

 

 

The 1984 Anti-Sikh Pogram took place in India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards acting in the aftermath of Operation Bluestar.

  • I felt like a refugee in my country. In fact, I felt like a Jew in Nazi Germany. (Khushwant Singh)
  • Criminally led hoodlums killed Sikhs, looted or burnt homes and properties while the police twiddled their thumbs. (India Today, November 15, 1984)
  • I was told,‘You appoint another committee to identify the people but HKL Bhagat is not involved.’ (Advocate Harvinder Singh Phoolka, who fought for justice for the Sikhs)