A Delhi court on Wednesday summoned Congress leader Jagdish Tytler to appear before it on August 5 in connection with the killings that took place at Pul Bangash area of Delhi during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984.
Taking cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidhi Gupta Anand of Rouse Avenue Courts passed the order today.
The national agency had filed the charge sheet in the case on May 20 against Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots case of 1984, alleging that he “incited, instigated and provoked the mob” that assembled at the Delhi’s Pul Bangash area on November 1, 1984, leading to the killing of three Sikhs.
Filing the charge sheet before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at the Rouse Avenue District Court, the national agency said it had registered an instant case on November 22, 2005 over the Pul Bangash violence, which led to burning of the Gurudwara Pul Bangash at Azad Market in Bara Hindu Rao area of Delhi and killing of three Sikhs, apart from burning and looting of shops in the vicinity.
CBI had collected Tytler’s voice samples in April in connection with the 39-year-old case.
The former Member of Parliament (MP) had dismissed the case against him when he was called for voice sample collection. Tytler had reportedly said that he was ‘prepared’ to ‘hang’ himself, if the agency found any evidence against him.
The national agency said that it has invoked charges of rioting and murder under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), among others, against Tytler. The court will consider the charges soon , it added.
At least 3,000 people, including mostly those belonging to the Sikh community, were killed in the riots that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984 after her controversial ‘Operation Blue Star’.
Justice Nanavati Commission of Inquiry was set up in 2000 by the Government of India to enquire into the incidents of anti-Sikh riots. After consideration of the Commission’s report, the Ministry of Home Affairs (Government of India) issued directions to CBI to investigate the case against then Member of Parliament Tytler and others.