1984 anti-Sikh riots: Two-member SIT to probe 186 closed cases

A two-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former Delhi High Court judge SN Dhingra will now examine the 186 anti-Sikh riots cases that were closed by an earlier investigation team on account of no prosecutable evidence.

By this order, the court modified its earlier order of January 11, 2018, constituting the SIT with Justice Dhingra and two IPS officers – Abhishek Dular and Rajdeep Singh. One of the officers (Rajdeep Singh) expressed inability to be part of the SIT citing "personal grounds" due to which the court altered the composition of SIT from three to two for its work to proceed.

On Tuesday, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, Deepak Gupta, and Hemant Gupta changed its earlier order and asked the two-member SIT to proceed in accordance with its January 11 order. The Centre had given its consent to the proposal made by the bench to prune the SIT in the interest of the riot victims still waiting for justice.

The order came in response to a PIL filed by Gurlad Singh Kahlon, who demanded the court to constitute a SIT for reopening cases, which were closed for lack of evidence. On August 16 last year, the apex court had appointed a supervisory panel to examine the decision by an earlier SIT to close 241 cases. Two cases are being probed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).