JALANDHAR: A US Sikh resident, Resham Singh, who has been claiming that he had seen Congress leader Jagdish Tytler leading the mob of rioters during 1984 anti-Sikh riots has now approached a Delhi court through an affidavit requesting that his testimony about Tytler’s role in the November 1984 killing of Sikhs be recorded before court gives its final verdict on the closure report filed by CBI.
interparcel.comIn his affidavit sent to a Delhi court, Resham Singh has described the details of efforts carried out by him from 2008 till December 2011 to have CBI record his testimony regarding Tytler’s involvement in the attack on Gurudwara Pul Bangash. In his affidavit he alleged that when the CBI team was in US to record the statements of witnesses (Surinder Singh and Jasbir Singh) in December 2008 he specially travelled from California to New York and waited outside the Indian Consulate in New York for four days and his presence was also told to the CBI team.
He alleged that despite his best efforts the CBI team did not record his statement even though its team was specifically in the US to record witnesses’ statements about Tytler’s role in the November 1984 killing of Sikhs.
Resham Singh who used to drive a taxi in Delhi in 1984, claims that on November 1, 1984, he saw Tytler leading a mob outside Gurudwara Pul Bangash. Three Sikhs were burnt alive in the attack and slogans “khoon ka badla khoon” were raised.
Attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the rights group representing victims and witnesses of November 1984, stated that Resham Singh has now directly approached the Delhi court as a last resort because CBI ignored and failed to record his testimony.
“Despite Nanavati Commission directive to investigate Tytler’s role and looking at CBI team’s resolute refusal to record Resham’s testimony during its visit to USA, it appears that CBI has been acting as Tytler’s defense team instead of an investigating agency,” alleged attorney Pannun.
He said that on January 25, 2012, victims’ counsels Navkiran Singh and Kamna Vohra would argue before the court that the CBI failed to properly investigate Tytler’s role in the killings and thus the closure report accepted in April 2010 should be rejected and the court should order a reinvestigation of Tytler’s role.
