New Delhi:
Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has said he was not involved in the 1984 riots in which nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi. On Wednesday, a Delhi court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reopen a case against Mr Tytler which accuses him of inciting a mob at a
gurudwara which led to the deaths of three Sikhs.
"If a court frames charges against me, I will not stay for a minute on any position that I hold because this will embarrass my party," he said to NDTV.
"I feel ashamed that this happened," Mr Tytler said of the riots triggered by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. He said he did not feel guilty because he is "not involved."
Mr Tytler is a member of the Congress Working Committee, a panel of top decision-makers of the ruling party.
The CBI had cleared Mr Tytler of links to the riots. But the court on Wednesday ordered a reinvestigation and said the CBI must record the statements of three witnesses who allegedly saw Mr Tytler inciting a mob to kill three men at a gurudwara in Delhi. One of them, Resham Singh, who lives in the US, says that when CBI investigators travelled to the US, he offered to record his testimony, but was ignored.
On NDTV yesterday, Resham Singh said via phone that he heard Mr Tytler urging "
khoon ka badla khoon (eye for an eye)".
Mr Tytler reiterated to NDTV yesterday that he was with Mrs Gandhi's body at her residence at the time when the men were set on fire at the gurudwara. But the court said that the two places are within a 15-minute drive. Mr Tytler said the journey would have taken at least 40 minutes on that day.
The Nanavati Commission, which investigated the riots, said there was credible evidence against the politician.