'Carry out killings, no one will harm you, Tytler told mob': Witnesses

PTI

New Delhi, August 5

“Kill the Sikhs.... they have killed our mother,” Congress leader Jagdish Tytler shouted, as he came out of a white ambassador car that pulled up in front of Gurdwara Pul Bangash on November 1, 1984. Soon, three persons at the Sikh shrine lay sprawled, dead.

The statement is part of a supplementary chargesheet filed against the former Union Minister, which led to his appearance, for the first time, on Saturday before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidhi Gupta Anand as an accused in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Three persons were killed and a gurdwara was set ablaze in the Pul Bangash area in New Delhi on November 1, 1984, a day after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

One of the statements claims that after alighting from the car, Tytler rebuked his supporters assembled there, saying, “I had completely assured you that nothing would affect (harm) you. You just kill the Sikhs”.

“The accused further said despite this, least number (very few) of Sikhs have been killed due to which he has been put to shame. He also said there had been only nominal killings in his constituencies (Assembly constituencies under his Delhi Sadar Lok Sabha seat) compared to East Delhi and North Delhi, and thereafter he left in a huff,” the statement said.

Some of the witnesses claimed though they did not hear what exactly Tytler told the mob, people gathered there “became violent after that and began to attack Gurdwara Pul Bangash and set it on fire.”

The final report by the CBI said it also included the statements of witnesses who claimed they had not named Tytler, or retracted their statements naming him, because they were “under threat from Tytler”.

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