1984 anti-Sikh riots: Supreme Court grants 2 more months to SIT to complete its probe
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday granted two more months to the Special Investigation Team to complete its probe into 186 cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer extended the time after the SIT informed it that more than 50 per cent of the work has been done and it wanted two more months to complete the investigation.
The apex court also issued notice to parties on a plea by petitioner S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, seeking inquiry into role of 62 policemen named in the riots.
The apex court had on January 11 last year constituted the SIT headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice S N Dhingra and comprising retired IPS officer Rajdeep Singh and serving IPS officer Abhishek Dular to supervise further probe into the 186 riots cases, in which closure reports had been filed earlier.
However, the SIT presently has only two members as Singh had declined to be a part of the team on "personal grounds".
The top court had appointed the three-member SIT after the Ministry of Home Affairs and counsel for petitioner S G S Kahlon arrived at a consensus with regard to the persons who could be appointed in the fresh SIT.
Large-scale riots had broken out in the national capital following the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on October 31, 1984. The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.
The court had said the previous SIT did not carry out further probe into the 186 cases and had directed setting up of a fresh SIT comprising a former high court judge and two police officers.
Justice Dhingra, who had retired from the Delhi High Court, had dealt with several high-profile cases including the 2001 Parliament Attack case as a trial judge.
As the judge of the trial court, he had dealt with many of the 1984 riot cases, and his verdicts had resulted in conviction in 16 cases.
On August 16, 2017, the apex court had appointed a supervisory panel to examine the earlier SIT's decision to close 241 cases.
The Centre had said that out of 250 riots cases which were probed by that SIT, closure reports were filed in 241. It had said some cases were still being investigated by the SIT, and two by the CBI.
The earlier SIT was headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, and comprised retired district and sessions judge Rakesh Kapoor and additional deputy commissioner of the Delhi Police Kumar Gyanesh.
Kahlon had told the court that a total of 293 riot-related cases were taken up for scrutiny by the earlier SIT which later decided to close 199 of them.
Kahlon had sought the top court's direction for setting up another SIT to ensure speedy justice to the riot victims.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
