Indifferent police and insensitive judges failed 1984 riot victims: SIT

New Delhi: The SC-constituted Justice S N Dhingra-led special investigation team (SIT) in its report has slammed indifferent police and insensitive trial judges for complete failure of justice in the 1984 Sikh riots cases involving hundreds of murders and blamed the Justice Ranganath Misra inquiry commission for delaying registration of FIRs in heinous offences by years.

- Dhananjay.Mahapatra timesgroup.com

The SIT states that in the name of investigation, almost nothing was done by police; acquittals were handed down by judges, not alive to the situation of the 1984 riots, in a routine manner; and Justice Misra commission received hundreds of affidavits from kin of victims of riots, but failed to direct police to register FIRs, which were delayed by years, resulting in acquittals.

The summary of the report, submitted in April 2019 but made public on Thursday, stated that “the basic reason for these crimes remaining unpunished and culprits getting scot free was lack of interest shown by the [Delhi] Police and the authorities in handling these cases as per the law or to proceed with the intention of punishing the culprits”. Some portions of the report were earlier published by media but details of the chilling police inaction and judicial insensitivity have came to light for the first time now.