The SIT constituted by the Narendra Modi-led government in 2015 booked them for provoking the mob in south Delhi’s Mahipalpur area
On this day, two men had allegedly incited a mob of 800-1000 people to draw carnage during the 1984 Sikh riots, 23 years later a Delhi court has put them on trial after an SIT setup two years back pressed charges against them early this year.
On 1st November 1984, a day after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead, there was bloodshed in the national capital.
Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Pandey put Naresh Sehrawat and Yash Pal Singh to trial, after the SIT constituted by the Narendra Modi-led government in 2015 booked them for provoking the mob in south Delhi’s Mahipalpur area.
“There is prima facie sufficient material on record to frame charges against both the accused,” the court stated.
The case pertains to the riots that broke after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguard. On this date in 1984, the mob allegedly incited by Sehrawat and Yash Pal killed Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh and left several others injured.
“That on November 1, 1984, at 9 am, both of you (Sehrawat and Yash Pal) were a part of a rioting mob of 800-1,000 persons who were armed with iron rods, sticks, danda, hockey sticks, stones, and kerosene oil. And both of you, in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy, broke open the door and window of Surjeet Kumar’s room,” the court said, while framing the charges against the duo.
In 1993, the case was re-opened on the statement of one Santokh Singh, a resident of Khalsa Kirana Store in Mahipalpur. Singh, before the Ranganath Mishra Commission of Inquiry, which was constituted on the recommendation of Justice DK Jain and DK Agarwal Committee, had said that the accused had incited the mob.
But, during the hearing in the court, he admitted that he was not an eye-witness and that whatever he had deposed in the affidavit before the Mishra Commission was on the basis of what the villagers of Mahipalpur had told him.
The police, thereafter, filed an untraceable report. The case was again re-opened by the SIT, which took the statement of the deceased’s brother, who was also injured in the same attack and was an eye-witness.
The court held that both accused were a party to the criminal conspiracy to commit the offence of house breaking, murder, attempt to murder, grievous hurt, dacoity armed with deadly weapons, mischief by fire and were further the member of unlawful assembly which committed these offences.
The mob had attacked Sikh shopkeepers, following which the victims shut their shops and took shelter in a small room. The rioters looted and set the shops on fire, following which they entered the room and killed the victims, including Avtar Singh.
The five victims were thrown off the first floor.
The duo, who were named by the witnesses, did not face trial and neither were they summoned. Sehrawat, however, was named as an accused in the riots case.
The next date of hearing has been fixed on January 10, 2018.
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