1984 riots: No intention to punish culprits, acquittals given in routine manner, says SIT

In a scathing report on the way the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases were handled by the police, administration and even judiciary, a Supreme Court appointed SIT has said there was no intention of punishing the culprits and acquittals were "handed over by judges" to the accused in a "routine manner".

The report of the SIT, headed by retired Delhi High Court judge Justice S N Dhingra, has said that "whole efforts" of police and administration "seem to have been to hush up the criminal cases concerning riots".

The cases were registered to give "clean chit" to certain persons, it said.

The report, which was submitted in the apex court, dealt with 186 anti-Sikh riots cases referred to the SIT which was set up by the top court on January 11, 2018 to supervise further probe into these cases in which closure reports were filed earlier.

It said the basic reason for these crimes remaining unpunished and culprits getting scot-free was lack of interest shown by the police and the authorities in handling these cases as per law or to proceed with the intention of punishing those involved.

The report is also critical of the way these cases were handled by trial courts here and said: "It is not understood how the courts proceeded with trial of several crimes of rioting, murders, arson, looting having taken place at different locations, different times and even different dates together."