A committee comprising two former Supreme Court judges will look into the cases of 1984 communal riots which were closed by a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).
A committee comprising two former Supreme Court judges will look into the cases of 1984 communal riots which were closed by a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The two retired judges — appointed by a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy, and AM Khanwilkar — will verify the decision taken by the SIT in closing at least 241 cases relating to the anti-Sikh riots that took place over three decades ago.
The order was passed in relation to a petition filed by S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), who had sought the apex court's directions in setting up of the SIT to ensure speedy justice to victims of the communal riots.
Earlier in March, on the heels of a petition filed by Kahlon, the top court had asked the MHA-constituted SIT to submit all files pertaining to the reinvestigation of the 199 cases pertaining to communal riots. Later 42 more cases were closed.
A total of 3,325 people were killed in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and other states in the riots after Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Delhi alone accounted for 2,733 deaths.
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots are considered to be one of the most violent cases of communal hatred after the partition in 1947. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its 2011 World Report stated, "The government has yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings of Sikhs that followed the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Delivery of justice for mass violence against Muslims in Mumbai in 1992-93 and in Gujarat in 2002 has been slow."
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