1984 riots: Delhi police was hand in gloves with the rioters, says sting operation

New Delhi: The Akali-BJP combine, fighting to consolidate the Sikh vote, got a shot in the arm with Cobrapost’s revelations on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Spelling more trouble for the Congress, it claimed Delhi police officials were complicit during the carnage that hit the city after Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984.

In its sting reportedly conducted over a year, the portal showed retired station house officers admitting on camera their failure as a force and how the top brass had colluded with the government to teach Sikhs a “lesson”. The SHOs claimed their seniors didn’t allow them to act against the culprits, and alleged police logbooks were changed, and only two per cent records kept. They said some police officers had even refused to register FIRs.

The sting, shown as a 90-minute documentary, has senior advocate H.S. Phoolka, AAP candidate in Ludhiana, claiming that the police on its own had closed 241 of 587 cases it had filed during the riots.

The sting has some officers alleging that messages were broadcast not to take action against rioters sho-uting slogans like “Indira Gandhi zindabad” and they were not allowed to open fire on rioters.

It was also claimed that victims’ bodies were dumped far from rioting areas to reduce the official toll. The Cobrapost sting mentions the names of top Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, as well as H.K.L. Bhagat and D. Shastri in connection with the riots.