New disclosures against Tytler will give new twist to riots probe: SAD

The Shiromani Akali Dal said on Saturday that fresh disclosures against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler will give a new turn to the reinvestigation into the 186 anti-Sikh riots cases by a Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal told the media here: "The wheels of justice have finally started moving against Tytler as well as other perpetrators. Even the role of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi will be under the scanner for the first time because new evidence links him directly with the Congress leaders who led the mobs that killed the Sikhs in Delhi. This is a big victory for the victims/survivors who have been waiting for justice for 33 years."

Hundreds of Sikhs were killed in Delhi and elsewhere in the country after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

Badal appreciated the union government and its Home Minister Rajnath Singh for what he called the resolve to bring the perpetrators of the 1984 killings to book by referring the "new disclosures" in the case against Tytler to the special investigation team (SIT) Chairman Justice S.N. Dhingra (retd) for investigation.

On January 11, a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the former Delhi High Court judge was constituted by the Supreme Court to further investigate the 186 cases in connection with the anti-Sikh riots.

Tytler had allegedly told a TV channel that he had travelled with Rajiv Gandhi in a car on November 1, 1984, in specific areas of Delhi where the Sikhs were attacked and killed.

Badal said he was confident that the case would unravel now since many startling disclosures had come out regarding Tyler's role as a video CD allegedly showing him boasting about killing 100 Sikhs during the riots.

"The self-disclosure by Tytler that he took Rajiv Gandhi to various places in Delhi on November 1 in 1984 proves a deeper conspiracy to target the Sikhs in a planned manner because the areas visited by Rajiv Gandhi were immediately wreaked by mayhem against the community.

"Now, it is necessary to ascertain where all the Prime Minister's security vehicles moved in Delhi with Tytler and Rajiv Gandhi on the fateful day. Their vehicles' log books need to be examined for this purpose," the Akali leader added.

Badal demanded a fresh FIR against Tytler in this case and impounding of his passport.

Tytler should also be subjected to polygraphy and narco test to ascertain the role of Congress leadership in the riots, the SAD President added.

--IANS

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