Badal seeks PM's intervention to set up SIT to probe '84 riots

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought "direct and personal intervention" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for constituting an SIT to re-investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases.
He also asked the Centre to take an immediate call on the recommendations of the committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice (retd) G P Mathur, which submitted its report to Home Minister Rajnath Singh last week, recommending fresh probe of the anti-Sikh riot cases through a Special Investigation Team.
The panel was constituted by the Centre to re-investigate several cases related to the anti-Sikh riots that were triggered after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

In a letter to the prime minister, copy of which was released to the media here, the chief minister apprised him that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has been constantly struggling to get justice for the victims of 1984 "genocide" in Delhi and other parts of the country.
He said that on the demand of SAD, the G P Mathur panel had been constituted in December 2014 by the NDA government to examine the possibility of constitution of an SIT for re-investigating of the 1984 riots.
Badal said that the former SC judge in his 45-page report, has suggested setting up of an SIT for the purpose and has also favoured re-investigation of many vital cases where crucial evidence was overlooked, claiming that there were several such cases that were closed by the Delhi police and never sent to the court for trial.

"Even two high profile cases involving Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler too needed to be re-investigated," Badal added.

The chief minister said, "This sensitive issue had so far been under wraps by the previous successive Congress governments at the Centre but now the recommendations of the panel were being viewed as a ray of hope for the hapless victims of 1984 genocide who had been eluded justice till date in their long ordeal."
He urged Prime Minister Modi to give appropriate instructions to the MHA for initiating immediate action to set up SIT without any further delay to probe the entire cases thoroughly related to "well-organised carnage" against Sikhs in the national capital and other parts of the country.

"By doing so, the Union government will not merely assuage the bruised psyche of the Sikh community but it will also be largely seen as a light at the end of the tunnel for the victims," added Badal.