New Delhi: CBI was on Friday directed to conduct further probe in a 1984-anti Sikh riots case against Jagdish Tytler with a Delhi court saying that statement of arms dealer Abhishek Verma discloses an active role played by the Congress leader in extending "helping hand" to a witness against him.
The court noted that statement given by Verma to CBI in which he has claimed that Tytler had sent the son of Surinder Singh Granthi, a key witness against him, to Canada cannot be a "sheer coincidence" and the agency should probe if the facts disclosed by Verma were true.
"The statement made by witness Abhishek Verma discloses an active role played by Jagdish Tytler in sending one Narinder Singh to Canada. Narinder is none other than the son of Surinder Singh Granthi, a key witness in the present case against Jagdish Tytler.
"It cannot be a sheer coincidence that Tytler extended a helping hand to Narinder Singh in 2004-05," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SPS Laler said, adding that a thorough probe was required.
"If the facts disclosed by Abhishek Verma are true, then an inference may be drawn by the court against Jagdish Tytler in the present case. Thus, it becomes necessary to find out whether the facts disclosed by him are true or not," the court said in its eight-page order.
In its order, the court elaborated on 11-points, including whether Verma had obtained a contract of Rs 50 lakh in 1988 from Air India when Tytler was the Civil Aviation Minister, which were required to be further probed by CBI. It also asked the agency to conduct a lie-detection test on Verma, if required.
However, the judge clarified that the agency is "free to investigate the matter by whatever mode and procedure suitable in the facts of the case and the aforesaid points are only indicative of the kind of probe that can be undertaken by CBI to find out the truth."
The court also said that as CBI has filed closure reports in the case several times, so it would now monitor the probe every two months so that no aspects of the matter is left uninvestigated. It has fixed the matter for further proceedings on February 2.
The case pertains to riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in north Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
