A Delhi court has ordered putting the Congress leader Jagdish Tytler on trial for murder and inciting to riot in connection with the killings of Thakur Singh, Badal Singh, and Gurcharan Singh outside the Pul Bangash Gurdwara during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. This matter involved the Central Bureau of Indian Investigation (CBI), which refers to current legal procedures concerning one of the most devastating periods of contemporary Indian history.
The court will formally put charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, and defiling a place of worship on September 13, when Tytler is expected to plead. The CBI’s chargesheet filed in May 2022 has accused Tytler of giving a rousing speech that led to the mobilization of violent crowds near the gurdwara in November 1984.
The CBI has based its evidence on the testimony of those eyewitnesses who evidently claim to have seen Tytler egging the crowd on and leading it to set the gurdwara on fire and killing three people. People who claimed to have witnessed the incident or saw the event through the videos said that Tytler encouraged the group to listen to him.
Tytler has also not admitted any wrongdoing but has always maintained that there was no sufficient evidence against him. He said he was ready to suffer the consequences if found guilty of the events in 1984 and promised to apologize a thousand times.
Riots ensued after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, resulting in persecution of the Sikh minority. The court had declined to proceed against Tytler on the CBI report, in which the agency gave a clean chit thrice. Earlier, a fresh investigation compelled the court to proceed against Tytler for charges.
A lot of blame has been laid on the Congress party for its actions during the riots and maladministration; former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, for instance, offered a public apology for the riots in 2012, an apology also endorsed by Congress Party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Today, at the age of 80, Tytler is free on bail. He has not violated the conditions laid by the court, such as not indulging in any manner with the evidence or fleeing the country. Further, as the case unfolds, it still triggers many emotions and clears stands both among the public and the political formations.
