JALANDHAR, Punjab—Interacting with media on yesterday, AAP legislator and former Supreme Court lawyer, Harvinder Singh Phoolka, shared that verdicts on nine cases relating to the 1984 Sikh genocide could be declared soon. He further shared that these cases also include those in which Congress veterans Sajjan Kumar & Jagdish Tytler have been indicted as the main accused. Phoolka said that the role played by these two Congress veterans was very clear but that the CBI had been shielding them.
Phoolka further shared that a Supervisory Committee of two former Supreme Court’s judges has been thoroughly scrutinizing 242 cases that had been closed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by Union government of India.
On a petition moved by former Delhi Gurdwara Committee (DSGMC) member, Gurlad Singh Kahlon, seeking the Supreme Court’s supervision over the workings of the SIT, a three member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, appointed a two member Supervisory committee on August 17, to scrutinize the 241 closed cases. The names of appointed judges in the supervisory committee were kept confidential at that time.
The SIT was appointed by the Narendra Modi led Union government of India in February, 2015. Initially, the SIT was asked to submit its report within six months, but later it tenure was dramatically increased, consecutively, and until now, has not brought any culprits of the genocide to justice.
The cases pertain to aftermath of the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indra Gandhi, on October 31, 1984, when around 3000 Sikhs were massacred in a systematic carnage, planned and led by Congress activists and sympathizers, within four days. The then Congress government was widely criticized for remaining a mute spectator and shielding perpetrators. It is an established fact that the Congress leaders had used voter lists to trace and target the houses of Sikhs.
The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, justified the genocide by issuing a stating, “When a big tree falls, the earth is bound to shake”.
His widow, Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Congress Party, officially apologized for the events in 1998.
