Dismissing a plea by the ministry for two months to collect the necessary files, Justice B D Ahamed called for records forwarded to the Presidential Secretariat by the government in 1985 recommending the officers’ names for the award, within a fortnight.

Intrigued by the withdrawal of the case by the police from a sessions court in July, 1987, the Bench also sought court files pertaining to the criminal case against the 16 persons, of whom admittedly five were women and four minors.

The direction came on a petition filed by Amrik Singh, one of the 16 alleged victims, in 2005, seeking court intervention to “punish” the police officers for “harassing and implicating the petitioner (Singh) and his family members in a false criminal case and for playing fraud against the Government of India for getting the President’s medal”. The petition impleads Home Ministry, Commissioner of Police, Delhi, besides Kanth and another officer S S Menon.

Singh, in his petition, recounted that a mob had collected outside his family’s Paharganj residence on November 5, 1984, a week after the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi. When the mob attacked his uncle, Amir Singh, the petitoner’s father, Faqir Singh, fired from his licensed gun, the petition said. In a short while, a joint contingent of the army and the police—the latter was led by Kanth, a deputy commissioner then— arrived on the scene, it says.

Singh claimed that the police, instead of taking steps to contain the mob, rounded up Singh’s family members, including a six-month-old baby, and transported them in custody to Daryaganj Police Station. All 16 were allegedly kept in the lock-up for the night, before the police registered an FIR against them under several sections of the Arms Act and IPC, including murder.

Asked by the court today as to why minors were charged under the Arms Act and the IPC, the government counsel said the mere fact that they faced trial in a sessions court and not a juvenile forum, showed that none of them were minors. Singh also said in his petition that police had “falsely” accused his family of shooting to death two persons, including an army personnel, Krishan Bahadur Gurung, who were part of the team present at the spot.