Daily Editorials | Current Affairs | INDIAN EXPRESS | Jan 19, 2020 | 1984 riot SIT

1984 riot SIT

• Centre has accepted the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by retired Delhi High Court judge Justice SN Dhingra which probed 186 cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Key Findings:

• Large-scale riots targeting members of the Sikh community had broken out in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.

• Trial judges handed out acquittals in a routine manner, failed to separate cases based on incidents and rejected testimonies of witnesses on grounds of delay of FIRs.

• In some riot-cum-murder cases, police clubbed hundreds of murders that took place at different locations and sent all accused together for trial. The report said this led to trials lingering for years as the accused would be absent on several dates.

• Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed Supreme Court that the Centre will take appropriate steps on the SIT recommendations.