Sikh riots: Jagdish Tytler appears before CBI for giving voice sample
New Delhi: Congress leader Jagdish Tytler on Tuesday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the national capital and gave samples of his voice, in connection with the Pul Bangash Gurdwara case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, according to sources.The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) will examine the voice samples. “I am ready to get hanged…if there is a single evidence against me,” Tytler said while leaving the laboratory.
“What have I done? If there’s evidence against me, then I’m prepared to hang myself…It wasn’t related to the 1984 riots case for which they wanted my voice (sample), but another case,” Tytler said.
However, CBI officials, “We have got evidence in an ongoing case, so he has been asked to give his voice sample.” Tytler is accused of leading a mob in the 1984 Pul Bangash case in which three Sikhs were killed.The CBI had given a clean chit to the Congress leader in the case but re-opened the investigation following a December 4, 2015 order.
Over the past few years, the Congress party had distanced itself from Tytler as he faced legal trouble related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards that left thousands dead in sectarian violence.
In December 2018, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that the convict in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Sajjan Kumar’s surrender will give the witnesses and victims’ families a morale boost and help put Jagdish Tytler and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath behind the bars.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa said, “We have seen in 1990 how Sajjan Kumar’s men rioted when the CBI and police went to detain him. The Congress will try at every level to protect him.”
“His arrest will give new hope to victims’ families and eyewitnesses and it will give them a boost to put Tytler and Kamal Nath behind the bars,” Sirsa said.
The case against Tytler was one of the three cases the Nanavati Commission had ordered to be reopened by the CBI in 2005.
The Nanavati Commission has named Tytler as one of the organizers of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Tytler is accused of leading a mob outside the Gurudwara Pul Bangash in his North Delhi constituency in which three Sikhs were killed.
According to official records, about 2,800 Sikhs were killed across India, including 2,100 in Delhi, during the pogrom that broke out after then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.