Exactly a week after CBI’s clearance to Congress MP from Sadar, Jagdish Tytler, in an anti-Sikh riots case, the city court will pronounce its final verdict on the cancellation report on Thursday.

Armed with unrestrained powers under the law, the court is expected to enunciate whether it is satisfied with the CBI probe over the past 15 months or whether a fresh probe is required.

The final investigation report filed by the agency had come up for hearing before the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit on April 2, giving a clean chit to the Congress leader on the ground that no reliable witness or document was recovered that could conclusively connect Tytler to the case.

The cancellation report contained the analytical examination of the statement of Jasbir Singh, a California-based witness who, in an affidavit before the Nanavati Commission, claimed to have overheard Tytler commenting on the killings of Sikhs in his erstwhile constituency (Delhi Sadar) on November 3, 1984.

Jasbir’s testimony was dubbed as “inconsistent, unreliable and unworthy of credit” by the CBI in its report. No eyewitness of the incident allegedly involving Tytler could be found, it stated.

Courses of action
Court can throw out the report and direct the CBI to re-investigate. If the court rejects the report, it can order a direct investigation into a particular aspect or can hold an inquiry separately. The law states even if a person gets a clean chit in a final report, the court can still issue a process or pass further orders for proceeding.
If the court decides to accept the cancellation report, it will move to drop proceedings against Tytler. The court will give a notice to the complainant or informant and provide him/her an opportunity to be heard at the time of report’s final consideration.
The third option rests with the complainant. In response to the CBI’s clean chit, the complainant can file a “protest petition” against the CBI’s findings, informing the court about possible flaws in the investigation. The complaint can also request the court to lead the evidence by recording his/her statement, or record the statement of a prime witness (like Jasbir in this case).

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