S.N. Dhingra, an additional session’s judge of Delhi, has convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years’ rigorous imprisonment 93 anti-Sikh rioters who had killed about 400 Sikhs in Trilokpuri area of Delhi in 1984 in the wake of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Belated though the decision is, it nevertheless broadly meets the ends of justice. Nothing better could have been expected because the prosecution wasted 12 years and squandered precious evidence against the rioters.
Of special significance is the court’s observation that the real culprits the administrators, the police and the political masters, still remain at large. Judge Dhingra named the then Lt Governor P.G. Gavai, the Commissioner of Police, Kaul, the then additional commissioner of police, Neeraj Kumar and other police officials like Jatav.
Seva Dass, R.D. Malhotra who acted under the guidance of their political masters and rendered the police force in active to deal with the riots. These observations must serve the Indian central government as a guide to step up action against the real culprits the then central ministers for home and senior civil and police officers, none of them having been touched so far.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 28, 1996
