The CBI today filed a progress report in a Delhi court in sealed cover on its further probe in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler was given clean chit by it.
The report was filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shivali Sharma by CBI Superintendent of Police Anurag Singh who was earlier directed by the court to appear before it and explain non-filing of the status report on the last date of hearing.
The court after perusing the report again kept it in the sealed cover at the request of CBI, which said the probe was underway.
After perusing the report in which it was alleged that some witnesses were threatened, the court asked the agency whether any other witness was also threatened.
On being asked by the court as to how much time the agency required to complete its probe, the CBI officer sought two months time, which was granted and the matter was fixed for April 27 for filing of a detailed status report.
During the hearing, senior advocate H S Phoolka, representing the riot victims, sought the copy of the report saying he was interested to know the progress in the probe.
To this, the court said his plea cannot be accepted at this stage and would be considered at the next hearing.
The court had earlier directed the CBI to file a status report on further probe in the matter. On February 2, it had expressed displeasure over non-filing of status report.
The court had on December 4, 2015, directed CBI to further probe the riots case against Tytler, saying the statement of arms dealer Abhishek Verma disclosed an active role played by the Congress leader in extending "helping hand" to a witness against him.
The court had also said that as the CBI had filed closure
reports in the case several times, it would now on monitor the probe every two months so that no aspect of the matter is left uninvestigated.
The case pertains to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The court's order had come on a protest petition filed by complainant Lakhvinder Kaur, whose husband Badal Singh was killed in the violence, challenging the CBI's closure report exonerating Tytler.
The court had noted that the statement given by Verma to CBI in which he claimed that Tytler had sent the son of Surinder Singh Granthi, a key witness against him, to Canada cannot be a "sheer coincidence" and the agency should probe if the facts disclosed by Verma were true.
CBI had re-investigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept the closure report. CBI had filed three closure reports in the case. Tytler has denied any role in the riots.
