1984 Riots: Former officer says CBI was soft on Tytler

New Delhi, Feb 5: A former top

officer, who probed the 1984 riots, has revealed that the investigation agency never showed any motivation to nab culprits involved in the anti-

riots, says

.

The former CBI joint director M Narayanan, ahead of the launch of his book ‘Voice of CBI', said that Congress leader Jagdish Tytler collected negative evidence to save Tytler instead of helping witnesses.

Tytler had visited the CBI office before the agency filed a closure report

The 1984 riots broke out after the assassination of the former prime minister Indira Gandhi. She was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards. In the riots, many hundreds of Sikhs were killed in Delhi.

"When I became joint director, both cells investigating cases related to the 1984 riots came under me. I found nothing was moving there. They (Golcha team) were collecting negative evidence, threatening witnesses," he said.

Tytler, reportedly, had visited the CBI office before the agency filed a closure report in court, he said. "No investigation was conducted till 2008," he added.

The former CBI officer tracked down two witnesses to the US with the help of Sikh organisations. Surender Singh was found in New York and Jasbir Singh in California. "When we recorded their statements in the US in August 2008, they named four more witnesses, two of whom, Resham Singh and Chanchal Singh, had heard Tytler telling his followers that there were only a few killings in his area and that it was a shame," Narayanan said.

After he retired on January 31, 2009, Golcha took over as joint director and the agency again filed a closure report. "I don't know how director Ashwani Kumar agreed to that. But, I feel, the new officer had managed him." The court accepted the closure report because Tytler's video showed him at Teen Murti House and witnesses deposed after so many years.

Narayanan said Tytler might have been present at Teen Murti; but he could have slipped out of the other gate.

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