No fresh evidence after 40 years, court sets aside FIR order in 1984 riots case

Delhi court overturns 2017 FIR order in 1984 anti-Sikh riots deaths

NEW DELHI: More than 40 years after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a Delhi court has set aside a 2017 order directing registration of an FIR into the deaths of two men, holding that a criminal investigation could not be revived decades later in the absence of fresh and credible material.Special judge Bhupinder Singh, while acknowledging the lasting trauma of the riots, said, “Every proceeding must, at some point, reach finality” and sympathy for the loss “cannot substitute for the legal foundation necessary to sustain the proceedings”.The case stemmed from a complaint by riot survivor Amrik Singh, who sought registration of an FIR against then DCP Amod Kanth and then ACP/SHO SS Manan, alleging police inaction and wrongful arrest of his family members.

The deaths of Amir Singh and Narender Singh occurred when the family was caught in a confrontation involving a mob, police and military personnel.Singh’s family faced prosecution over the alleged killing of a military personnel and a civilian, which was withdrawn in 1988. In 2005, Singh brought before the court a complaint alleging police inaction. In Jan 2017, a magisterial court directed registration of an FIR to ascertain the cause of the deaths.

Judge Singh found the case suffered from an extraordinary delay, with no credible contemporaneous proof the alleged complaint had been pursued. The court found allegations against police difficult to reconcile with contemporaneous accounts. Though Amir Singh’s widow had told the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission her husband was killed by a rioting mob and praised DCP Kanth for protecting her family, in 1987, the family attributed the deaths to mob violence.The court said earlier inquiries had found no reliable material indicating misconduct by the officers, noting the absence of fresh forensic evidence, witness statements or specific acts attributable to the accused.