New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday filed a charge sheet against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 39-year-old anti-Sikh riots case at Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court.
The case pertains to the violence in the national capital's Pul Bangash area in which three persons were killed and a gurudwara torched during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of then Prime Minister of India, on October 31, 1984.
The Congress leader was named in the charge sheet following fresh evidence against him.
Last month, the probe agency had collected voice samples of the Congress leader in connection with the case. The Congress leader is accused of inciting a mob that murdered the victims.
Tytler "incited, instigated and provoked the mob assembled at Pul Bangash Gurudwara Azad Market" on November 1, 1984, that resulted in the burning down of the gurudwara and killing of three Sikhs, Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh, the CBI alleged in its charge sheet filed before a special court here.
The agency has invoked charges under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148, 149 (unlawful assembly), 153A (provocation), 109 (abetment) read with 302 (murder), 295 (defiling of religious places) among others.
The court will take cognisance of the charges on June 2, they said.
Arms dealer Abhishek Verma, who is facing a CBI probe in a number of cases, had claimed that Tytler had paid money to one of the witnesses of the riots and settled his son in Canada.
On November 22, 2005, the CBI had registered the case on an incident wherein Gurudwara Pul Bangash at Azad Market, Bara Hindu Rao, Delhi was set on fire by a mob and three persons namely Sardar Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh were burnt to death on November 1, 1984 near Gurudwara Pul Bangash.
"Justice Nanavati Commission of Inquiry was set up in the year 2000 by the Centre Government to inquire into the incidents of anti-Sikh riots of the year 1984 in Delhi. After consideration of the Commission's report, Ministry of Home Affairs (Government of India) issued directions to CBI to investigate the case against then Member of Parliament and others," said a CBI official.
The official further said that during the CBI investigation, evidence came on record that on November 1, 1984, the said accused allegedly instigated, incited and provoked the mob assembled at Gurudwara Pul Bangash at Azad Market, Delhi which resulted in the burning of Gurudwara Pul Bangash and killing of three Sikh persons by the mob, apart from burning and looting of shops.
"After investigation, a charge sheet has been filed today," the official added.
The CBI had given a clean chit to the Congress leader in the case but re-opened the investigation following a December 4, 2015 order.
According to official records, about 2,800 Sikhs were killed across India, including 2,100 in Delhi, during the pogrom that broke out after then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.