According to sources, Congress leader Jagdish Tytler appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the national capital on Tuesday and provided voice samples in connection with the Pul Bangash Gurdwara case, which is linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.
The voice samples will be examined by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL). “I am ready to be hanged…if there is a single piece of evidence against me,” Tytler stated as he walked out of the laboratory. “What did I do?” If there is evidence against me, I am willing to hang myself…It wasn’t for the 1984 riots case, for which they wanted my voice (sample), but for another,” Tytler explained.
According to CBI authorities, “we have evidence in an ongoing case, so he has been asked to provide a voice sample.”
Tytler is accused of leading a mob in the 1984 Pul Bangash affair, which resulted in the deaths of three Sikhs.
The CBI had cleared the Congress leader in the case, but the investigation was reopened following a December 4, 2015 order.
The Congress party had distanced itself from Tytler in recent years as he faced legal difficulties relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the death of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, which killed thousands in sectarian bloodshed.
In December 2018, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa stated that the surrender of Sajjan Kumar, a convict in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, will raise the morale of witnesses and victims families and assist put Jagdish Tytler and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath behind bars.
“We saw in 1990 how Sajjan Kumar’s men rioted when the CBI and police went to detain him,” Manjinder Singh Sirsa remarked. The Congress will make every effort to defend him.” “His arrest will give victims’ families and eyewitnesses new hope, and it will give them a boost in their efforts to put Tytler and Kamal Nath behind bars,” Sirsa said.
The case against Tytler was one among three that the Nanavati Commission directed the CBI to reopen in 2005.
Tytler was listed as one of the organisers of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by the Nanavati Commission. Tytler is accused of leading a mob that massacred three Sikhs outside the Gurudwara Pul Bangash in his North Delhi seat.
According to official records, around 2,800 Sikhs were slain across India, including 2,100 in Delhi, during the pogrom that erupted following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.