1984 anti-Sikh riots: Delhi HC grants 4 weeks to trial court to reconstruct records

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted four more weeks to the trial court for the reconstruction of four-decade-old records in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The high court on August 11 ordered for reconstruction of the records and on Monday issued the direction to the trial court in a case over the acquittal of five men including former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar in the killing of four Sikhs in Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar.

The murders took place on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Three women alleged their husbands and son were burnt alive.

In 1986, the trial court acquitted Khokhar and four others, for want of evidence.

A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar on Monday said on August 11, the high court directed the trial court to furnish a detailed report on the status of reconstruction of the records.

However, the report was not yet received from the trial court.

"The trial court is requested to file the report within a period of four weeks from today," the bench said and posted the matter for October 10.

A copy of its order along with previous orders were directed to be sent to the district judge (headquarters) Tis Hazari Court.

The high court ordered the reconstruction of the trial records in the case, underlining the right of the victims and society to a fair investigation.

The high court had taken suo motu cognisance to determine the correctness of the 1986 verdict as it prima facie found fault in the investigation and the earlier proceedings conducted in a "hasty manner".

The trial court must reconstruct the records of the two case of 1986, and only then can the high court assess whether the original acquittals can stand, it added.