The Congress leader is accused of inciting a mob that murdered 3 people in Delhi.
Voice samples of anti-Sikh riots accused Congress leader Jagdish Tytler are being collected by the CBI's forensics lab today. The probe agency had summoned Mr Tytler in connection with the violence in the national capital's Pul Bangash area in 1984, where three people were killed. The Congress leader is accused of inciting a mob that murdered the victims.
Mr Tytler arrived at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, where further proceedings are underway, sources said. The agency has found fresh evidence in the 39-year-old riots case, making it necessary to have the voice sample of Jagdish Tytler, they said.
"I am ready to get hanged...if there is a single evidence against me," Mr Tytler said while leaving the laboratory, news agency ANI reported.
"What have I done? If there's evidence against me, then I'm prepared to hang myself...It wasn't related to 1984 riots case for which they wanted my voice (sample), but another case," he said.
The assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 after her controversial "Operation Blue Star" led to violent attacks on the Sikh community in the country. At least 3,000 people were killed in the riots. Independent sources estimate the number at 8,000 including at least 3,000 in Delhi. Mr Tytler was given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation on three occasions, but the court had asked the agency to investigate the matter further.
78-year-old Jagdish Tytler, once a formidable leader of the Congress in Delhi, was also named in a report of the Nanavati Commission which probed the anti-Sikh riots. The case against Tytler was one of the three cases the Nanavati Commission had ordered to be reopened by the CBI in 2005.
He has long been an embarrassment for the Congress, which has been accused by the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal or SAD, and other rivals of shielding its leaders accused in the anti-Sikh riots.
Jagdish Tytler also became a minister in the Manmohan Singh government in 2004 but had to quit in a firestorm of protests.
Mr Tytler, who wasn't too visible after increasing attacks by the Opposition for his presence at key Congress events, was included in its committee for the Delhi municipal election last year, sparking a huge controversy. He was also supposed to join the Delhi leg of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's ambitious pan-India foot march, the Bharat Jodo Yatra, but skipped it at the last moment, presumably to avoid further controversy.
Jagdish Tytler argues that the charges against him have not been proven.
Another riot-accused Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, was sentenced to life in jail by the Delhi High Court, which cancelled an earlier court order letting him off.
However, Kamal Nath, another Congress leader whose name came up in witness accounts, was picked by then-party president Rahul Gandhi as Madhya Pradesh chief minister in 2018, leading to fresh rounds of protests against the grand old party. Kamal Nath continues to be a top Congress leader, prominently visible in all party activities.
The BJP had in 2018 filed a complaint demanding Jagdish Tytler's arrest after a Sikh organisation released a video, claiming it shows him saying "I killed 100 Sikhs".