Supreme Court approves the formation of 2 membered SIT probing into 186 cases of 1984 anti sikh riots

 

 

New Delhi, December 4: The Supreme Court today has approved the formation of 2 membered SIT probe into 186 cases of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots of Delhi. The apex court accepted the Central Government’s suggestion and modified it’s order dated January 11. The Centre had earlier suggested that the two members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) could continue with the probe. 

 

 

The other two other members constituting the team now, former Delhi High Court judge Justice SN Dhingra and serving IPS officer Abhishek Dular will oversee the further investigation in the cases. The Centre directed the Supreme Court on 3rd of December this month that it may not be necessary to substitute Rajdeep Singh who had declined to be a part of a three-member SIT due to personal reasons.

 

 

 

 

The government on Monday told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that they have no objection if the other two members of the SIT continue with the work. The bench however conveyed that since the order dated 11th of January constituting a three-member SIT was passed by a bench of three-judges, they cannot change it while sitting in a combination of two judges. The apex court at that time had a three-member SIT headed by Justice (retired) Dhingra.

 

 

Large-scale riots had broken out in the national capital in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards on the morning of October 31, 1984. The violence had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone.