New Delhi:
In a big setback for Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, a Delhi court has set aside a closure report of the Central Bureau of Investigation and ordered re-investigation of allegations that the former minister instigated a rioting mob, which murdered three men 29 years ago during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Here are the 10 big developments in the case:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had given a clean chit to Mr Tytler in 2007 and again in 2009, claiming there is no evidence against him.
Lakhwinder Kaur, the widow of one of the men killed, challenged the closure report filed by the CBI in 2009. She insisted that the investigating agency has not recorded the testimony of two key eyewitnesses who have since moved to the United States.
During arguments on April 4 this year, the CBI prosecutor sought the dismissal of Lakhwinder Kaur's petition, saying investigations made it clear that Mr Tytler was not present at the Pulbangash Gurudwara on November 1, 1984.
The prosecutor argued that at the time of the incident, Mr Tytler was at Teen Murti Bhawan, the residence of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had been assassinated by her Sikh security guards the previous day, October 31.
Mr Tytler's alleged role in the case has already been investigated twice by the CBI. After a court refused to accept its closure report in had in December 2007, it had conducted inquiries again, only to turn up the same findings.
The rioting mob, which murdered three men - Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh - who had taken shelter at a north Delhi gurudwara on November 1, 1984.
Another former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar too is facing trial for allegedly inciting a mob to kill Sikhs in the Delhi cantonment area. The CBI has concluded its arguments against him.
The riots began on the evening of October 31, 1984, the day Mrs Gandhi was assassinated. Over the next few days, more than 8,000 Sikhs were killed across the country, 3,000 of them in the national capital.
Only 30 people in 12 murder cases have been convicted so far.
Ten different commissions and committees have looked into the 1984 Delhi riots in last three decades; 72 police officers were identified for connivance and gross negligence. The probe panels had recommended that 30 of them be sacked, but no action was taken.
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