1984 anti-Sikh riots: CBI collects Jagdish Tytler’s voice samples

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NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler today appeared before the CBI at its headquarters here and gave his voice samples in connection with Delhi’s Pul Bangash Gurdwara case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in which three persons were killed by a mob, officials said.

The officials said the voice samples were collected after a sting video surfaced in which a person, purported to be Tytler, was claiming to have killed people belonging to the Sikh community. The CBI has filed three closure reports so far.

The agency would now compare Tytler’s voice samples with that in the video, they said. The probe agency has also summoned politician Manjit Singh GK, who had released the alleged sting tape.

Tytler, who was named in the Nanavati Commission report that probed the riots, arrived at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in the CGO Complex where his voice samples were collected by experts, the officials said, adding that he was allowed to leave after the exercise.

The case pertains to the riots at Pul Bangash Gurdwara in North Delhi, where three persons were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

The families of the victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI’s closure reports in the case. The court had in December 2015 directed the CBI to further investigate the matter and said it would monitor the probe every two months to ensure that no aspect was left uninvestigated.

Tytler was accused of inciting a mob that murdered the victims. All three closure reports of the CBI were rejected by a special court.

In 2018, sting videos were released by Manjit Singh GK, who claimed to have received these by post from a Delhi-based businessman.

The CBI is reinvestigating the case of the killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurdwara. The agency is regularly filing its status reports in the matter before the special court here.