Special probe in 1984 riots |
India`s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The SIT will be set up in a week. The special probe team is likely to be headed by an officer who will have powers of investigation granted to the police under the Criminal Procedure Code. The SIT will have powers to summon all records and its work will not be recommendatory in nature. It will also have powers to file charge sheets in court. The SIT can be monitored by a sitting judge if the government desires. In December 2014, after distributing cheques of additional compensation to riot victims, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had termed the riots as `genocide` and said several persons who had a `role` in the carnage were yet to be punished. The MHA had constituted a committee under a retired Supreme Court judge Justice G P Mathur for a fresh probe into the riots. The riots had followed Indira Gandhi`s assassination on October 31, 1984. Of 3,325 deaths, 2,733 took place in Delhi alone. So far just 13 cases of murder have seen convictions. Only 30 persons have been convicted in the past 30 years. Of these 30, almost all are now on bail or their convictions have been condoned by higher courts.
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