WSN-1984-CBI sleuths in US to record 1984 genocide witnesses' statements

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CBI sleuths in US to record 1984 genocide witnesses' statements
WSN Bureau

NEW YORK: Months after India's top sleuthing agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told an Indian court looking into the role of former Indian Minister Jagdish Tytler that it simply cannot trace a key witness, CBI detectives from India landed in the United States to record the statements of Jasbir Singh and Surinder Singh, the two witnesses.

The development comes after CBI had to eat humble pie when media tracked down witnesses who the CBI was trying to project as non-existent for years. It was also trying to decline recording the testimonies of US based witnesses and wanted them to return to India but was forced to do so. Tytler is widely believed to have incited and led the killer mobs which killed hundreds of Sikhs during the genocidal 1984 massacres in Indian capital Delhi and elsewhere.

The two-member CBI team on December 22 recorded the statement of Delhi-based granthi Surinder Singh in Manhattan. He had left India eight months ago after deposing before CBI earlier this year.

Surinder detailed the attack on Gurdwara Pul Bangash and the massacre of the Sikhs. Three Sikhs, Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Amarjit Singh were killed there. Surinder Singh's statement was recorded under Section 164 of CrPC, his advocate Gurpatwant Singh Pannu said.

The CBI will also be recording the statement of other key witness Jasbir Singh. Tytler on September 29, 2007 had pleaded with the court to close the case claiming the witness Jasbir Singh was not traceable and Surinder Singh has refused to depose. Later, both emerged to say that they were ready to but the CBI had simply not contacted them.

A non-profit organization Sikhs For Justice played an appreciable role in extending counseling to the two witnesses and fighting for justice.

Surinder Singh has claimed that his father and brother are under Tytler’s influence. "He has taken over my house after throwing my wife out. I don’t know what’s going to become of my family, but no one can force me to change my statement. I saw him inciting a mob on the morning of November 1 (1984), outside Gurdwara Pul Bangash," he said in a phone call from Manhattan.

Jasbir Singh, who settled in USA in 2002, lost 26 family members in the massacre and escaped death after cutting off his hair and shaving his beard. He now drives a truck in California. His statement relates to a November 3 incident at Camp chowk near Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in Delhi. “A livid Tytler had incited a mob of over 300 people to kill ‘as many Sikhs as you can’.” He has often quoted Tytler telling the frenzied mob, “What face would I show to the Central leaders to whom I have promised revenge for the killing of our mother (Indira Gandhi).”