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NEW DELHI: Former Indian Express reporter Sanjay Suri, who was an eyewitness to the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984, says Punjab and the Akali Dal didn’t do anything for the victims of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. But he says the guilty can still be punished as there is enough evidence on files.
In Chandigarh to promote his book `The Anti-Sikh Violence and After’, Suri explained that the people of Punjab and the Akali Dal never acted strongly to get justice for the 1984 riots because the victims were poor Sikhs, not Jat Sikhs.
“One reason these deaths did not evoke that kind of reaction in Punjab is that those killed in the Delhi riots were poor Sikhs. They were carpenters, auto-rickshaw drivers. They were not owned up by any Punjab government or Sikhs living in Punjab. Had over 3,000 Jat Sikhs been killed, it would have been a different story,” Suri told Hindustan Times in an interview in Chandigarh.
“In Punjab, the Jat Sikhs are the politically powerful and dominant community. The Delhi victims were distant and poor. Otherwise people of Punjab would have reacted differently to the tragedy,” Suri added.
The journalis-turned-author said justice can still be given to the victims. “Sufficient evidence is available in government files to prosecute those who perpetuated the violence, including police officers who remained mute spectator to the riots,’’ the Tribune quoted him as saying.
Suri says, “I have seen two senior Congress leaders either giving directions to the mob to resort to violence or arguing with the police to get accused released from their custody. Though more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi, FIRs registered mentioned 1,400 casualties. Action can be taken in the remaining cases.’’
Suri wants former Delhi Police chief Ved Marwah to head a high-level committee “to prosecute the politicians and policemen involved in the riots. Marwah had prepared a comprehensive report on riots.’’
Marwah, who served as Delhi Police commissioner from April 1985 to April 1988, was the first person appointed to investigate the riots. He was additional commissioner of Delhi Police at that time when the riots happened.
But in the middle of 1985 when Marwaha was close to filing a report, his boss and then police commissioner S S Jog told him to stop the investigation as the inquiry report would have nailed the Congress.
Marwah has categorically said that Delhi police allowed the mobs to go on the rampage and kill Sikhs.
Suri deposed before the Mishra Commission which was formed when Marwah was asked not to file his report.
