CBI tells court it can re-investigate 1984 riots case National/Crime/Law

The CBI on Tuesday told a court that it can further investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which it had filed a closure report and given a clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.

The Central Bureau of Investigation's statement came while replying to an application filed by the Shiromani Akali Dal where the party told the court that it will provide the addresses of three material witnesses.

The probe agency in its reply said it was prepared to investigate the matter further on the court's permission.

The CBI had earlier informed the court that these witnesses were not traceable.

The court on October 30 reserved its order on deciding on the closure report filed in a riots case against Tytler.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler, who was scheduled to pass the order on Tuesday, was on leave.

The court has fixed December 3 to decide on the closure report and other applications filed in the case.

Advocate H.S. Phoolka, appearing for victim/complainant Lakhvinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was killed during the riots, said that in view of the seriousness of the offence, the court should not accept the closure report.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Kaur against the CBI's closure report -- its third -- giving a clean chit to Tytler for his alleged role in the violence.

Phoolka said the CBI's investigation was "faulty, tainted, dishonest and perfunctory".

Earlier, the agency gave a clean chit to the Congress leader twice.

In April 2013, a sessions court rejected a closure report and ordered the agency to further investigate the killings.

The CBI did that but filed another closure report on December 24, 2014, saying there was no sufficient evidence to proceed against Tytler.