CBI chief gave Tytler a clean chit, his officers had said prosecute him

Perhaps, journalist Jarnail Singh's shoe carries a lot more weight than the words of the Joint Director (JD) of the Central Bureau of Investigation or of its Deputy Inspector General (DIG).

According to records obtained by The Sunday Express, the JD and DIG clearly recommended, in writing, that there was a strong case against Jagdish Tytler in the Bara Hindu Rao anti-Sikh riots case under a string of charges including murder, rioting and damage to property. Despite this, the agency's director Ashwani Kumar signed on the clean chit to Tytler.

That's not all.

After the shoe controversy sparked outrage and Tytler and fellow accused Sajjan Kumar were told to withdraw from the electoral race, both the Congress and the UPA said the Government was unaware of the clean chit to Tytler.

However, records also show that the CBI clean chit came after its Director of Prosecutions S K Sharma, who reports to the Law Ministry, also opined that the evidence against Tytler was too weak.

On April 2, CBI filed its final investigation report in the Bara Hindu Rao case (one of the seven the CBI registered after the Nanavati Commission report in 2005) despite this sharp division within.

Also, in December 2008, even after the CBI took the unprecedented step of sending a team to the US to question two crucial witnesses Jasbir Singh and Surender Singh on directions of the court and although it had secured testimonies indicting Tytler, it chose to pick holes in their version of events.

This is evident from status reports submitted by the CBI to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which directed the agency to register cases against Tytler, Kumar and Dharam Das Shastri after the Nanavati report was tabled in Parliament.

The CBI informed the Home Ministry that both witnesses had reiterated their allegations and the agency was trying to verify their statements and trying to trace one Sucha Singh, with whom Jasbir Singh claimed to have stayed during the riots.

... contd.

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