1984 anti-Sikh riots: Supreme Court grants 2 more months to SIT to complete its probe

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”.

Large-scale riots had broken out in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on the morning of October 31, 1984. The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.