LUDHIANA, Punjab—Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and senior advocate of Supreme Court HS Phoolka has written an open letter to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in which he has demanded that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the 1984 Sikh genocide be set up by the government.
In his detailed letter, he said that of the 241 related cases, only four were re-opened, and re-investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In two of the cases, the CBIhad filed a charge sheet in 2010.
The letter further reads that one of the cases was decided by the court in last year and five persons, including a former MLA, were convicted. Mr. Phoolks said if the remaining 237 cases were reopened, it would result in more convictions. The letter is given below:
To Date: 29.05.2014
Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad
Union Minister of Law and Justice
Shastri Bhawan
New DelhiSir
I congratulate you on taking over as Union Minister of Law and Justice. You have appeared for the victims of 1984 riots in the cases against Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler as pro bono, without charging any fee. I, as well as the victims, and Sikh community, appreciate your help and support.Now since you are in a position where you can help the victims in getting justice, we have very high hopes of you. The police closed 241 cases relating to 1984 riots and filed un-traced reports and these cases were never sent for trial to the court. Out of these 241 cases four cases were re-opened in 2005 and re-investigated by CBI. In two of these cases CBI filed the charge sheet in the year 2010 finding sufficient material and strong witnesses. The CBI also found during the investigation that police had wrongly closed cases to shield the guilty. One of these case was decided by the court in the year 2013 and 5 accused are convicted including an Ex-MLA [Member of Legislative Assembly] and Ex-counselor.
The above facts clearly shows that if other 237 cases are also reopened and re-investigated, a number of them will result in convictions and the guilty could be punished. These cases need to be investigated by Special Investigation team (SIT) to be constituted with officers from outside Delhi police.
In May 2013 a victim Nirpreet Kaur sat on hunger strike at Jantar Mantar demanding formation of SIT. The then president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mr. Vijay Goel along with his team sat on Dharna with her to support the demand for formation of SIT. Head of Akali Dal and head of Aam Aadmi party, Mr. Kejriwal also sat on Dharn and fasted a to support this demand for formation of SIT. The parties arose above politics to support the demand of justice for the victims of largest massacre in the history of India.
When Mr. Kejriwal’s government came to power in Delhi, it decided to constitute a SIT to reopen and re-investigate / further investigate these cases and also met the Lt Governor for this purpose. The names of some highly credible police officers were recommended for the SIT which also included Mr. Suresh Arora Director General of Police (DGP) (Vigilance Bureau) Punjab.
The issue is still pending with Lt. Governor because the previous congress government was interested in shielding the guilty and not bringing them to book.
Sir now you have taken over a very important portfolio of law and justice and you have to make decisions for the government on legal issues therefore I earnestly request you to get the SIT constituted and make it operational.
We have very high hopes from you and expect during your tenure of ministry of law and justice that the victims will get justice.
Thanking you
Yours sincerely
H S Phoolka
