NEW DELHI: Nearly 40 years after three men were killed by a mob in the Pul Bangash area of Old Delhi during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a Delhi court has ordered the framing of charges against former Union minister and Congress member Jagdish Tytler.
The court presided over by Special Judge Rakesh Syal, found “sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused person.” Tytler is to be charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 302 (murder) and Section 109 (abetment). However, he was discharged from charges under Section 148 (rioting with a deadly weapon).
The court scheduled the formal framing of charges for September 13, when Tytler will be required to appear in court. The charges relate to the events of November 1, 1984, when a mob set fire to Gurdwara Pul Bangash in North Delhi, killing three people—Sardar Thakur Singh, Badal Singh, and Gurcharan Singh.
In addition to charges related to murder and abetment, Tytler will also face charges under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 188 (disobedience of the order duly promulgated by a public servant), 295 (injuring or defiling a place of worship), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house), 451 (house trespass), 380 (theft in a dwelling house), and 149 (member of unlawful assembly guilty of offense committed in prosecution of common object).
Jagdish Tytler, a senior Congress leader with a long political career, was elected to the Lok Sabha four times, representing the now-defunct Delhi Sadar parliamentary seat in 1980, 1984, 1991, and 2004. He served as a union minister in various capacities during different Congress governments, starting with the Rajiv Gandhi administration.
Tytler had previously been given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 1984 riots case in 2009, leading the Congress to announce his candidacy for the North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat. However, his candidacy was withdrawn following widespread protests from the Sikh community.
In October 2021, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi appointed Tytler as one of the 37 permanent invitees to the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. He made headlines again when he was named a delegate to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) ahead of its plenary session in February 2023.
