MHA reopens 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases against Kamal Nath

NEW DELHI: The home ministry has ordered reopening of a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case against Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath.

In a notification, the ministry asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the anti-Sikh riot cases to reopen case no. 601/84 against Nath and consider the fresh evidence against the Congress leader.

The order came on a petition filed by Manjinder Singh Sirsa, an Akali Dal MLA from Delhi’s Rajouri Garden.

“Start counting your days @officeof-KNath; you will soon be meeting your buddy Sajjan Kumar in jail,” Sirsa said on Twitter.

The SIT will now look into the allegations that Nath incited a crowd against Sikhs at Gurudwara Rakabganj in Delhi soon after the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Kumar was earlier found guilty of abetting violence against Sikhs and has been sentenced.

The development comes ahead of elections for the Delhi Assembly that are likely to take place early next year. The SIT has announced that seven cases, including the one against Nath, will be reopened in the wake of fresh evidence.

“The SIT has taken up discharged cases for scrutiny and details of these cases are being made public so that it can be viewed by related persons all over the world and those who are acquainted with the facts of these cases can give information about the same,” said a home ministry order issued last month.

As per officials records, 3,325 persons were killed in the 1984 riots, out of which, 2,733 were killed in Delhi. The SIT was formed on February 12, 2015. According to the home ministry's affidavit in November 2016, 650 cases were registered in connection with the 1984 riots. Of these, 18 were 'cancelled' and 268 case files were 'untraceable'. The SIT re-investigated 286 cases.

The SIT had earlier issued public notices with regard to these 22 cases.

Sirsa has appealed to those who were eyewitness in the case against Nath to come forward. “There is no need to be scared,” he said.