Captain Amarinder says he never gave a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler

After sparking off a huge controversy over his clean chit to 1984 Sikh riots accused Jagdish Tytler, former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday retracted his comment, saying that he had never given a clean chit to Tytler.

"I have not given a clean chit to Tytler. What I have said is that four days after the killing of Indira Gandhi, I attended all the camps in Delhi. I was there for four days. I heard everyone's name, but I never heard Tytler's name," said Captain Amarinder Singh. "If you look at the archives, my statements are consistent with what it is today. I have said that nobody took Tytler's name. Now, if they say that it is a clean chit, then it is not. I had said on the basis of what I saw and what I heard. Rest is upto the CBI to prosecute and the courts to decide," Singh added. He further asked, "Why would I tell a lie? If I could name Sajjan Kumar, H.K.L. Bhagat and the others, then why would I not name Tytler?" Amarinder, in an interview to a private news channel, had apparently said that victims of 1984 riots had not named Tytler as one of the persons who were leading an angry mob. He further claimed that Tytler had no role in those riots. Earlier, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers staged protests outside the Congress Party headquarters, demanding action against Captain Amarinder Singh, who is the Congress candidate for the Amritsar constituency. The protestors, who were shouting slogans, apparently tried to remove the barricades installed by the police. The police later used water cannons to disperse them.