Jagdish Tytler, the leader of India’s principal opposition Congress party was charged with murder by Central Bureau of Investigation in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom case. The case is related to the murders of Sikh youth at New Delhi’s Pul Bangash area in the immediate hours after the then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards, following which anti-Sikh pogrom began with targeted killings of Sikh men in Delhi and parts of northern India.
Tytler was charged with murder in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He had already been granted anticipatory bail by the sessions court on Friday. The acceptance of bail bond by the Rouse Avenue Court led to protests by the victims’ kin and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) outside the court premises.
The protesters demanded the cancellation of bail granted to Tytler and his prosecution under severe sections of the IPC, reported PTI.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidhi Gupta Anand noted that the accused has already been granted anticipatory bail by a sessions court. The court also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to provide a copy of the charge sheet to the Congress leader.
“Bail bond furnished. Accepted, subject to conditions imposed on bail order,” the magistrate said. The Congress leader’s wife, Jennifer Tytler, stood security for him in the case. The court verified Jeniffer’s identity and financial status and accepted her as a surety after noting that she was financially independent. The matter will be heard on August 11.
Earlier, New Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court said that there is a sufficient proof to suggest that Tytler was present in Pul Bangash at the spot where Sikh youth were murdered by a blood-thirsty mob.
The eye-witness accounts heard by the court, one of which also included a testimony from Tytler’s driver’s son, configured that ‘Tytler was seen instigating the mob’. The exact nature of this instigation is yet to be ascertained.
