CBI gives clean chit to Tytler

In a reprieve for former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, CBI today gave him a clean chit in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and informed a Delhi court that it wanted to close the matter.

CBI counsel Sanjay Kumar told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit that “We have filed the cancellation report in the matter and we want to close the investigation.”

Earlier, the court ordered the opening of the sealed envelope containing the final investigation report, filed on March 28 and other status reports submitted by the CBI during the probe.

The case against 65 year-old Tytler, who has been declared Congress candidate from Delhi’s northeast seat for the Lok Sabha polls, relates to an incident on November 1, 1984, when a mob had set afire Gurudwara Pulbangash, killing three persons in the riots that had broken out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Reacting to the CBI move, Tytler said, “Right from the beginining I had said this was a frame-up...I was innocent and the truth has come out. Let people say what they want to. I want to just close the chapter.”

H S Phoolka, counsel for Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, raised objections over the alleged leak of the report on Tytler who had claimed innocence in the case.

“CBI seems to be hand in gloves with the accused who claims that he has been given clean chit,” he said.

The court now fixed the matter for April nine. Earlier, the probe agency had on September 29, 2007, sought to close the case against Tytler. But the court had on December 19, 2007, asked it to file the investigation report after Jasbir Singh, a witness, surfaced and expressed his willingness to depose against the Congress leader.