Even as the Shiromani Akali Dal (Babbar) has released on a website (www.openfacts.org) the names of 235 Delhi Police officials accused of involvement in the 1984 riots or dereliction of duty, the Government is doggedly pursuing action against just three officers, lending itself to criticism and charges of arbitrariness.
The Government has recently moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against one of these officers, Dr Chandra Prakash, even though he was exonerated by an inquiry committee and his supersession set aside by the Delhi High Court.
"Not even in a single case has substantive action been taken," claims president of Akali Dal (Babbar), Mr Gurcharan Singh Babbar. "The internal inquiry of the Delhi Police conducted by its Anti-Riots Cell itself had recommended action against 72 officers," he adds.
Sources in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the controlling authority for the Delhi Police, however state that disciplinary action has been taken against 14 subordinate officers. This is dismissed as an 'eyewash' by Mr Babbar, who complains that not a single senior officer has been punished for the complete breakdown of the law and order machinery in the Capital after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, leading to the killing of over 2,000 persons by rioters in three days.
The Ministry has exonerated several officers, including Mr R C Kohli (then DCP Crime & Railways, now Joint Commissioner Delhi Police), Mr U K Katna (then DCP West and now on deputation to RAW) and Mr Ajay Chadha (then Addl DCP South and now DIG Andaman and Nicobar Islands), who were accused of complicity or dereliction of duty.
Eyebrows have been raised over the government action, which appears to heap the entire blame on just three officers - Mr HC Jatav (then Additional Commissioner (Range), now retired), Dr Chandra Prakash (then DCP South, now Jt Commissioner Delhi Armed Police) and Mr Sewa Dass (then DCP East, now Additional Commissoner Establishment, Delhi Police). Mr Sewa Dass has even been superseded. Incidentally, all three officers belong to the Scheduled Castes.
Mr Jatav retired in 1992 as Director-General Home Guards, and the inquiry report against him is now pending before the Home Ministry. The inquiry against Mr Sewa Dass has been completed, but the report has yet to be submitted to the government, and the officer's career is still on hold even 15 years after the anti-Sikh riots.
But the most tortuous has been the case of Dr Chandra Prakash. After a long legal battle, the Delhi High Court set aside his supersession and ordered his promotion to the rank of IGP as interim relief.
In his case, a division bench has observed, "The incidents of 1984 are being used to deny justice to Dr Prakash. The petitioner has been kept under a cloud for six long years, undergoing immense pain, suffering, humiliation, harassment and pecuniary loss. He has undegone all this without being found guilty in accordance with the rules. The inquiry report has exonerated him by holding that the charges against him not proved."
The Home Ministry rejected the inquiry report, and persisted with its chargesheet, following which Dr Chandra Prakash filed a writ petition in the High Court in 1998, seeking quashing of the chargesheet after his exoneration by the inquiry committee. The Ministry is still to file its reply to the writ petition, and has instead moved an SLP in the Supreme Court earlier this month, though it had earlier committed to filing its reply and contesting the matter in the High Court. This change of stance has made the ministry vulnerable to charges of harassment and abuse of power.
