Apr
23
Nanavati recommends reopening of 1984 cases
April 23, 2005 | Comments Off on Nanavati recommends reopening of 1984 cases
In a recent interview, Justice Nanavati spoke out for the first time since submitting his report on the 1984 pogroms, recommending that the government reopen cases against some politicians because the investigations were not “properly carried out.” However, he refused to name the cases he thought required reinvestigation, and stated that he did not believe the violence was pre-planned.
“I have submitted my report to the Government. It is up to the Government to act,” the 70-year-old justice said.
In its investigation of the 1984 pogroms, the Nanvati Commission examined many Congress leaders, including Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, former Central Minister Vasant Sante, and Sajjan Kumar, MP.
Significantly, three earlier panels set up by the Government – Jain-Banerjee Committee, Poti-Rosha Committee and Jain-Aggarwal Committee – had recommended that cases be registered against Sajjan Kumar.
Former minister HKL Bhagat was also linked to the pogroms, but didn’t appear before the commission due to poor health. When asked whether he believed the violence was organized, Nanavati replied:
“It was planned to the extent that Sikh houses were identified and targeted. The rioters knew their houses.”
He dismissed suggestions that the riots were “pre-planned”.
Sources in the Commission, however, pointed out that the evidence presented did “indicate a pattern in which the riots took place” and a “pattern in which the attacks” took place against the Sikhs.
Nanavati admitted that there was dereliction of duty on the part of some police officers, but added that some police officers have been suspended or punished.
ENSAAF’s report Twenty Years of Impunity: The November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India, discusses the magnitude of the crimes and how grave lapses in police investigations, delays in filing cases, the failure to identify and investigate prosecution witnesses, the deliberate misrecording of witness statements, and the failure to comply with legal procedures precluded effective prosecutions against major perpetrators. The report analyzes thousands of pages of previously unavailable and secret affidavits, government records and arguments submitted to the 1985 Misra Commission, established to examine the Sikh Massacres in Delhi, Kanpur, and Bokaro. The report reveals the systematic and organized manner in which state institutions, such as the Delhi Police, and Congress (I) officials perpetrated mass murder in November 1984 and later justified the violence in inquiry proceedings.
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