Riot case: HC asks police chief to consider complaint of ’84 riot victims

The Delhi Police Commissioner was on Wednesday asked by the Delhi High Court to examine a complaint to be filed on behalf of the victims of a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case for prosecuting policemen allegedly responsible for not filing a chargesheet in the case for almost 20 years.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Murugesan, however, refused to order a CBI probe into the complaint alleging lapses by policemen in probing the role of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a riots case and deliberately not filing the chargesheet in the lower court to save Kumar.

"So far no complaint is lodged in this regard with the police. In the absence of any complaint pending, we are not inclined to issue any direction... We, however, make it clear that when petitioner files any complaint, the commissioner of police will look into it accordingly," the court said.

The bench, also comprising Justice V K Jain, then disposed of the PIL, filed by the November 84 Carnage Justice Committee, seeking a direction to the Centre to order a CBI probe into the roles of policemen who allegedly did not file the chargesheet in the court concerned despite preparing it.

The chargesheet pertained to an FIR lodged at the Nangloi police station in 1987 against Sajjan Kumar only in the murder of four Sikhs during the 1984 riots that had followed after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, senior lawyer H S Phoolka said.

"On April 8, 1992, a chargesheet relating to FIR 67/1987 at Nangloi Police station, Delhi, was prepared by the police and was ready to be filed in the court. In the said chargesheet, accused Sajjan Kumar, the then Congress MP, has been shown as the only accused... but it was not filed in the court. It was suppressed for 18 years and did not see the light of the day," Phoolka said.

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