NEW DELHI: Even as the hearings on the Jain Banerjee 1984 Riots Committee draw to a close, the Delhi police have launched a witch hunt for the man who has been closely involved in fighting for the rights of the riot victims.
Gurcharan Singh Babbar, the general secretary of the AllIndia Sikh Conference (B), is not a stranger to the Capital, nor is he a man on the run. But strangely enough, his photograph now adoms the wall of police stations in Delhi, along with those of other wanted men.
Babbar has been in the forefront of the riot victims long battle to get those guilty of masterminding the: 1984 genocide punished. Time and again, he had demanded that H. K. L Bhagat and Jagdish Tytler, both Union ministers should resign in the face of evidence about their role in the riots.
His work with the riot victims has brought him in touch with prominent citizens in the Capital, all of whom are unanimous in their opinion that’ Babbar is “above suspicion.”
“This move against him is highly motivated and obnoxious. Babbar is a sober, sedate and good social worker, respected in his community and outside,” said LK Gupjral former Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
Fighting for a cause
“He has been involved in taking up the cause of those who suffered in the November 1984 riots, I have known him since then. I think we should definitely protest his being treated like this,” Gujral said.
Babbar participated in three all party conferences on Punjab organized by Gujral and “made significant contributions.”
Justice Rajender Sachar of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties condemned the attitude of the Delhi police against Babar. “I think its a serious matter. The police has no business circulating his photographs and destroying his reputation,” he said.
“I would think he is the last person to be a security tisk,” Sachar said. Babbar had been working openly for the riot victims and there was nothing clandestine about his activities said the former Chief Justice of the High Court.
Not an undesirable element
Prof Madhu Dandavate MP said: “He is not an undesirable element. His activities have been totally above ground.”
For the last five years, Babbar has addressed scores of rallies of riot victims and organized black flag demonstrations to demand justice for them. He has addressed several press conferences.
Last year, he went on a hunger strike to protest the violence being perpetrated on Sikhs in Bidar, Karnataka. S.R. Bommai, then Chief Minister of Karnataka invited him to visit the state as a member of a goodwill mission to work for normalcy after the Bidar incidents.
Babbar moves openly and lives at a verified address in Delhi. Despite knowing all this, the police have made not move to arrest him although his photograph has been in circulation for some months now.
Babbar himself feels that the whole exercise is a conspiracy to prevent him from giving evidence in the riot cases, whenever they are taken up.
Bhagat, others scared
“Even if the JainBanerjee Committee is not allowed to function, we will file cases directly.” Probably this is what Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler are scared of,” he said. It was more to harass him and to scare off other riot victims from approaching the judiciary, he said.
Babbar fears that the police may even try to liquidate him. He has been receiving threats to his life over the phone. He also claims that a caller identifying himself as Deepak son of H.K.L. Bhagat asked him to hand over all files pertaining to the riot cases in exchange for all the overhead expenses incurred by his organization during the process.
He met the Commissioner of Police, Vijay Karan on May 30 to request that the anonymous callers be traced. “Instead the Commissioner told me, “Hame khatra hai aap se,” Babbar told
Babbar was going to the High Court on Friday to attend the proceedings of the Jain Banerjee riot panel case when he came to know that he was “wanted” man.
“At one of the traffic signals, a newspaper hawker was screaming out the headlines of the day. I heard him say “Babbar” so I brought the paper. To my shock, I found that the police had branded me a terrorist and I was on the wanted list, he said.
Anticipatory bail plea
At the High Court he rushed to the Chief Justice’s chamber, to see what his chances were of obtaining. anticipatory bail. He was not allowed to see him and had to approach him at his residence later in the evening. There he was told to come through the registrar.
Babbar then went to the registrars house who asked him to come the next day with a petition. On Saturday, Justice R.N Sapra heard his plea for anticipatory bail but as his petition was not worded properly, the hearing was postponed to Monday.
As the lawyer was not satisfied with the wording of the petition the hearing was again postponed from Monday to Wednesday.
Sinister Frame-up
The sinister manner in which Babbar was sought to be dealt with, shows how far Rajiv Gandhi’s government can go to frame an innocent person to serve its political ends. Babbar was asked by the Congress(!) to stop attacking the three leaders and raking up the riots issue. On his rejecting the proposition he immediately found his photograph on display along with those of “wanted men”.
The argument by the Delhi police that Babbar’s particulars and photograph were just meant for police records is precisely the sort of effrontery that gives the police. the name it deserves. If it was just for record why was the photograph displayed so widely and along with particulars and photographs of wanted men? How many political activists without criminal charges or records have had their particulars and photographs so displayed? None. Why then was Babbar singled out for such treatment? Was it to browbeat him to submission? Or was it something infinitely more sinister to shoot him in a fake encounter and then proclaim that yet another “deadly terrorist” had been eliminated?
One can imagine what has been going on in the remote villages of Punjab and in respect of less known person. Secondly it was intervention by the Press and the public and an appeal to the judiciary that has so far saved Babbar. There has to be such immediate interventions in similar and other cases of outrage. That is the only way these criminals rulers can be held in check. NEW DELHE: Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatama Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari joined the Janata Dal.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1989
