NEW DELHI, India—AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal today welcomed the Centre’s decision to give Rs 5 lakh each to next of kin of 3,325 victims of 1984 massacres but, at the same time, demanded setting up of a Special Investigation Team to ensure a thorough probe into the cases.
He said his government had announced the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the cases but a notification instituting the probe is yet to be issued. “Compensation… is a good step. But it is important they get justice. The AAP government announced a SIT. The government should notify it now,” the former Delhi Chief Minister said.
The AAP government had on February 6 recommended to the Lt Governor the setting up of an SIT to probe the anti-Sikh pogroms with a time frame of one year to submit its report. The modalities of the SIT probe were approved at a Delhi Cabinet meeting.
The Cabinet while approving the modalities had stated that all those cases which were closed or shown untraced, would be reopened, reinvestigated and if need arises would also file fresh FIRs. Subsequently, the Lt Governor had approved the proposal but no notification was issued to set up the probe panel. The Modi government has decided to give Rs five lakh each to the next of kin of 3,325 victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.
Of the 3,325 victims, 2,733 were killed in Delhi alone while rest of the victims were from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states. In 2006, the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh had announced a package of Rs 717 crore which included monetary compensation of Rs 3.5 lakh to the kin of each killed in the massacres besides financial assistance to the injured and those who had lost their property.
