1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Jagdish Tytler urges HC to stay trial proceedings

Congress leader Jagdish Tytler on Monday, 11 November, urged the Delhi High Court to stay the trial proceedings against him in a case related to the killing of three persons in north Delhi’s Pul Bangash area during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Tytler’s counsel submitted that the case is listed for recording of the evidence of a prosecution witness before a trial court on Tuesday, 12 November, and the lower court should be directed not to proceed with the matter till the High Court decides on his plea challenging the framing of the charges against him, of murder and other offences.

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri, who had earlier granted time to Tytler to file certain additional documents, noted that though the documents have been filed, they were not on record.

The high court directed the registry to place the documents on record during the day and said it would take up the matter at 2:15 p.m.

Tytler’s petition challenging the framing of the charges against him is already listed for the high court to hear on 29 November. During its pendency, the leader filed the application seeking a stay on the trial of the case.

Tytler's application said the evidence of prosecution witness Lokender Kaur was recorded by the trial court, and her cross-examination by the defence counsel is scheduled for 12 November.

‘The criminal revision petition (of Tytler) raised substantial questions upon the motivation of the prosecution and the investigation conducted by the CBI. Therefore, an order/direction from this court for the trial court to not proceed with the captioned matter till the pendency of the revision petition is expedient in the interest of justice,’ the application said.

Senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, representing the victims, opposed the stay application and said the witness was aged and suffering from various ailments and was being made to appear in the trial court several times. She would be appearing in court for the fourth time, he said, on Tuesday.

The high court had earlier asked Tytler’s counsel to file statements of certain witnesses, which it did not find on record.

Tytler, in his petition, claimed he was a victim of a ‘witch-hunt’ and contended that the trial court's order framing charges against him was perverse, illegal and lacked application of mind.

‘By way of the impugned order, the trial court has erroneously framed charges against the petitioner, overlooking the settled principles of law on the point of charge,’ he said in the petition.

Tytler's counsel has also raised a plea of alibi, claiming that he was not present at the spot at the time of the incident.

The plea was opposed by the CBI's counsel and the victims, who submitted that the plea of alibi had already been decided and rejected by the high court.

In his petition, Tytler claimed that there was no credible evidence to corroborate the allegations levelled against him and that the trial court's order was ‘misconceived’, had been passed ‘mechanically’ and was liable to be set aside.

He alleged that this was a ‘classic case of witch-hunt and harassment of the petitioner in which he is now being made to face trial for an alleged offence which was committed more than four decades ago’.

Tytler noted that he is 80 years old and suffering from various ailments, including heart disease and diabetes.

He has sought the quashing of the 30 August order of the trial court, directing framing of charges against him in the case.

The trial court, on 13 September, formally framed charges against him after he pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the offences.

Besides murder, the trial court had ordered the framing of charges for several other offences, including unlawful assembly, provocation, rioting, murder, promoting enmity between different groups, house trespass, and theft.

The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Tytler in the case on 20 May 2023.

Tytler had allegedly ‘incited, instigated and provoked the mob assembled at Pul Bangash Gurdwara Azad Market’ on 1 November 1984, resulting in the burning down of the gurdwara and the killing of three Sikhs — Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh — the CBI alleged in its charge sheet.

Citing a witness, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had in its charge sheet said that Tytler came out of a white Ambassador car in front of Gurdwara Pul Bangash on 1 November 1984 and allegedly instigated a mob by shouting: ‘Kill the Sikhs, they have killed our mother.’

Three Sikhs were then killed by the mob.

Anti-Sikh riots erupted in several parts of the country in the aftermath of the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984.

A sessions court had in August 2023 granted anticipatory bail to Tytler in the case.