On Friday the Delhi Rouse Avenue Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to frame the charges against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, where three people were killed.
Notably, the court determined that the trial against Tytler can proceed under many sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 143, 147, 153A, 188, 295, 436, 451, 380, 149, 302, and 109.
In May 2023, the chargesheet was filed, the CBI accused Tytler, a former union minister, of provoking a mob that gathered near the Pul Bangash gurdwara on November 1, 1984. According to the media reports, Tytler exited a white ambassador car in front of the gurdwara and instigated the crowd, shouting, “Kill the Sikhs, they have killed our mother!”
Subsequently, three people were killed by the mob, angered over the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards the previous day. In August 2023, a sessions court granted anticipatory bail to Tytler in the case, on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and a surety of the same amount.
The CBI has brought the charges against Tytler under many sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 147 (rioting), 109 (abetment) and 302 (murder). The Congress party is not only tainted with accusations of leading the genocide of Sikhs in the wake of former PM Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her two Sikh bodyguards. Over the years, the party has also earned the distinction of rewarding those accused of charges during the anti-Sikh pogrom.
However, the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots took place in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31st October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards as revenge for Operation Blue Star.
Sikhs across the country were killed from 4th November to 4th November. The government figures suggest the angry mobs, many of which were led by Congress leaders, brutally murdered 3,350 Sikhs. The Indian National Congress gave Jagdish Tytler tickets to contest the election. and also made Union Minister of Civil Aviation first and then the Labour Department. He had contested the 2004 elections and won as well. He was dropped in the 2009 polls.
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