SIT probing anti-Sikh riots notified as police station

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, January 2

The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to declare the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Kanpur as a police station.

The Cabinet decision to notify the Kanpur SIT as a police station is expected to speed up investigations and fast track justice to the victims, who still await justice 36 years after the riots.

A delegation led by All-India Riot Victim Relief Committee (AIRVRC) President Kuldeep Singh Bhogal had met Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajendra Tiwari on November 28, 2019.

The memorandum presented to the chief secretary among other demands had asked for the state government to provide investigating powers to the Kanpur SIT.

Kanpur-based AIRVRC national general secretary Surjit Singh Oberoi said the Cabinet decision to treat the Kanpur SIT as a police station was significant.

He added that this would give the 30-odd staff of the SIT powers to file FIRs and investigate charges, including collecting evidence. He said despite the SIT being set up in February 2019 hardly any progress had been made as the SIT was merely gathering FIRs. It had no power to independently collect collaborative evidence and file charges.

Welcoming the decision, Bhogal said he hoped that the Kanpur SIT would now expedite the probe. After Delhi, the worst violence was witnessed in Kanpur in 1984.