SIT yet to record statement of single witness in Kanpur
RE-PROBE ON SINCE FEB Reports of files going missing have worried the victims’ families; 127 deaths were recorded in city
KANPUR : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed in February 2019 to reinvestigate the antisikh riot cases that took place in Kanpur in 1984 after the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, has not yet recorded the statement of a single witness. A delegation of Allindia Riot Victims Relief Committee (AIRVRC), including its two Supreme Court lawyers Gurbaksh Singh Dev and Prasoon Kumar, had confronted SIT (retired additional director prosecution) member, Yogeshwar Krishna Srivastava, who denied the charge.
“We are unable to locate most of the FIRS or the judicial orders or the papers related to the 1984 cases,” he stated.
Reports of disappearance of files related to the anti-sikh riots cases have proved disappointing for families of Kanpur riot victims, many of whom have relocated to other places in India and aboard.
“The victims are living in the hope of getting justice after 35 years,” said AIRVRC president Kuldeep Singh Bhogal.
The half-hearted manner in which the SIT is functioning can be gauged from case of 63-year old Avtar Singh, son of Vishakha Singh, who was part of the AIRVRC delegation.
He had lost seven members of
We are unable to locate most of the FIRS or the judicial orders or the papers related to the 1984 cases.
YK SRIVASTAVA, SIT member Rather than waiting to find FIRS and other documents, the SIT should have started taking statements of witnesses. KS BHOGAL, chief, a victims’ panel
his immediate family, including parents, four brothers and a sister in the riots.
Surprisingly, the SIT was neither aware of his case, nor had a copy of his FIR. When the delegation asked the SIT to make a symbolic beginning by recording the statement of Avtar in their presence, a SIT member asked lawyers to get Avtar to submit an affidavit. It was left to Avtar to provide the SIT a copy of his own 35-year-old FIR.
Later speaking to reporters, Bhogal said they were very disappointed at the manner in which the SIT work was progressing.
“Rather than waiting to find the FIRS and other documents, the SIT should have started recording statements of a key witnesses like Avtar. We have seen in Delhi that one thing leads to another,” he added.
He has also urged chief minister Yogi Adityanath to provide security to the witnesses, a demand that has not been met.
Next week, the AIRVRC plans to file a petition in the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the working of the Kanpur SIT, listing the many points on which it has failed.
Kanpur faced maximum violence after Delhi during the 1984 riots. The Justice Ranganath Misra Commission appointed by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi recorded 127 deaths in the city. Not a single person has been punished so far.
On AIRVRC’S petition in August 2017, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government directing it to set up a SIT to probe the cases. After much dilly-dallying, the SIT was constituted in February 2019, but it started working only after the May 2019 elections.
The four-member SIT is headed by retired Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Atul.
The other members are retired district judge Subhash Chandra Agarwal and retired additional director (prosecution) Yogeshwar Krishna Srivastava. SP Balendu Bhushan Singh is its member-secretary.