The direction to re-open the cases was issued after perusing the trial court records regarding the acquittal
The Delhi High Court (HC) on Wednesday re-opened five cases related to the 1984 Sikh riots, wherein the accused were acquitted in 1986. The HC termed the acquittal decision made by the trial court as one made in "haste to scuttle prosecutions and close trials".
A Bench of Justices Gita Mittal and Anu Malhotra issued summons to the accused, asking them to give reasons for non-conduction of trials on them, while stating that "the prosecution, Delhi Police, have completely abdicated their duties and have not assisted the trial courts nor ensured that the truth was brought out".
The direction to re-open the cases was issued after perusing the trial court records regarding the acquittal. The HC came to a conclusion that neither the witnesses nor the complainant were examined properly by the lower court.
The HC also pulled up the Delhi Police for its "lip service" investigation, stating that the final chargesheet filed by the cops in March 1985 showed that the bare essential requirements of an investigation into any of the complaints did not appear to have been carried out before their filing.
"No effort has been made to trace out either the bodies or the stolen materials. No statement of eyewitnesses, including relatives or neighbours or other persons who may have been present, has been recorded. To say the least, the bare notions of investigation do not seem to have been carried out before the challan was filed," the court observed.
The trial court records were placed before the HC by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during the hearing of another 1984 riot case, in which the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar has been challenged by the agency.
"Even if each complaint could be examined as a standalone crime, it is undisputed that each of them relates to the very serious offence of commission of murder. Some of the accused are implicated for commission of more than one such offence. Would these crimes fall in the category where truth has become a casualty at the hands of investigator, prosecutor, and in the trial?" the bench observed.
The several accused who have been issued summons include ex-Congress councillor Balwan Khokar, ex-Congress MLA Mahendra Yadav, and Congress workers Ved Prakash and Dhanpat.
The Bench ordered the Delhi Police to investigate the case while directing the complainants to be present in the court on April 20. The court also appointed Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal as amicus curiae in the matter.
Violent riots had broken after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh body guard in 1984.
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