1984 Anti-Sikh Riots : SIT Submits Report To SC After Completing Probe

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the cases related to the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots filed its report in the Supreme Court on Friday in a sealed cover.

The SIT, led by Justice SN Dhingra, was constituted by the Supreme Court to examine the cases which had been closed by the CBI. 

A bench comprising CJI SA Bobde, Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant, will consider the report and decide whether the report and its contents can be shared with petitioner, one Gurlad S Kahlon, member of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee.

ASG Pinky Anand submitted that the SIT could now be disbanded as their probe was complete, and sought for the second member of the panel, IPS officer Abhishek Gular, to be allowed to go back to the CBI. Though the bench did not formally say anything about disbanding the panel, it did repatriate Gular, from the 2-member team, to the CBI. The matter will again come up before the bench after a period of two weeks.

The Narendra Modi government, in 2014, had set up a 3-member SIT, headed by IPS officer Pramod Asthana, to examine the possibility of reopening 293 cases related to the 1984 riots for investigation. The panel found that investigation in 241 of these cases were fit to be closed. The petitioner challenged these findings in the top court. A bench led by then CJI Dipak Misra agreed that the panel had not conducted a detailed probe in a large number of those cases and ordered the constitution of a new SIT. Thus, in January 2018, a 3 member SIT was re-constituted by the Supreme Court to examine 186 such cases.

This commission, comprising of Justice Dhingra, Abhishek Dular and retired IPS officer, Rajdeep Singh, was to submit an interim report after 2 months. However, Singh was unable to join the SIT. After the apex court asked the remaining members to go ahead with their examination without a third member, the panel started its work in the beginning of 2019 with 199 cases being referred to them, including some cases which had been examined by the Asthana panel.