India-West, Dec. 7, 2007
Key Witness in ’84 Riots Case Surfaces in Bay Area
By KETAKI GOKHALE
India-West Staff Reporter
The key witness in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in New Delhi involving former Indian Union Minister Jagdish Tytler was located in Fremont, Calif. last week, shortly after being dismissed as “untraceable” by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation.
Between 2000 and 2002, the man, 41-year-old Jasbir Singh, now a truck driver in Fremont, Calif., provided several testimonies before the commission in India investigating the riots, alleging that Tytler instigated the waves of violence against Sikhs.
Tytler, who served as the Minister for the Welfare of Expatriate Indians until August 2005, resigned from the position after a probe panel said there was a strong suspicion that he organized the riots in which nearly 3,000 Sikhs were massacred. The CBI’s inability to locate Singh, who has since moved to the U.S., for his testimony was viewed by the Indian press as a triumph for Tytler.
Singh was 18 when the riots swept New Delhi for nearly three days in November 1984. Roving bands of Congress Party sympathizers descended on the capital from surrounding areas, killing thousands of Sikhs in retaliation for the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards a few days earlier on Oct. 31.
On Nov. 1, 1984, Singh’s family home on Jagjit Nagar was doused in kerosene and set on fire. His family went into hiding. The men cut their hair and stopped wearing turbans, to prevent themselves from being obvious targets, his most recent affidavit said.
Then, on Nov. 3, 1984, Singh overheard a conversation that is now burned into his memory. He took a stroll outside his friend’s house after dinner and noticed Tytler, an easily distinguishable figure, stepping out of a car to address a group standing near the T.B. Hospital Gate, the testimony said.
“He immediately burst out and rebuked the persons forming the group that his instructions have not been faithfully carried out,” the affidavit reads. “His position has been greatly compromised and lowered in the eyes of central leaders. There have been only nominal killings in his constituency compared to East Delhi, Outer Delhi and Cantt? How would I be able to claim stakes in future? He also said, ‘I had promised large scale killings of Sikhs and sought full protection, but you have betrayed and let me down.’ Saying this he left in a huff.”
Over the course of the two years Singh provided his testimony, he was threatened by people who claimed to be associates of Tytler, Singh told India-West. In 2002, he fled India because he feared for his life and the safety of his family.
“For each of the affidavits I filed, they told me I should write a few lines saying that Jagdish Tytler is not involved in the 1984 Sikh massacre,” Singh said. “When I did not write this, they threatened me. They told me that anything you want, anything you have ever dreamed of, we will give it.”
When he refused to change his testimony, Singh was told the “consequences will not be good,” he said.
He was granted political asylum in the U.S. and has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years now, but continued to receive threatening phone calls at his U.S. residence as recently as six months ago, he said.
Then, on Nov. 29, an item appeared in the Indian media saying that the CBI had told the court that Singh was untraceable, and that the agency was seeking closure of the case after taking into account “all aspects, including the conspiracy angle,” which was interpreted as an exculpation of Tytler by prominent news outlets, such as The Hindustan Times.
Singh, however, told India-West that the CBI never made an attempt to contact him.
“Nobody ever contacted him directly,” his attorney, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, told India-West. “And even if they were from CBI, they didn’t identify themselves as such.”
When The Hindustan Times released its report that the key witness in the case was missing and that the CBI had given Tytler a “clean chit,” an incensed Singh released a statement through his lawyer. In it, he reiterated his willingness to testify against Tytler and provided his U.S. contact information.
“The fact that you are talking to me means that I am accessible,” Singh told India-West.
The court requested the Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee to submit Singh’s current address by Dec. 6, the date of the next hearing. “I don’t think we can resolve this soon,” Pannun told India-West. “At the next court date, Jasbir’s attorneys will have to give his new address, and then the court has to retry to contact him.”
The CBI’s statement that Singh was untraceable has called into question the agency’s competence and impartiality. “CBI had a few witnesses who backtracked later, and they said Jasbir was unavailable,” Pannun said. “When they said that, the matter went back to the court to see what sorts of attempts CBI had made to contact Jasbir.”
Pannun estimates that it will take another year for the CBI to request a testimony from Singh. When that time arrives, Pannun said the first priority would be his client’s safety. “We are not contemplating sending him back there,” he told India-West. “CBI could come here and record the statement, or they might have to do it through video conferencing.”
Singh said that he is willing to testify before the court, provided his family’s safety is guaranteed. His immediate family, wife and children all reside in India, and have experienced tremendous backlash since Singh’s name entered the public dialogue last week.
“A few days back, a mob stoned my house,” Singh told India-West. “Even in the place where my wife is living, a few unidentified people with license number plates from Haryana were asking about my family’s whereabouts. The tenants said they didn’t know.”
Pannun said that Singh is frustrated with the Indian legal process. “All the successive governments are trying to put dust into the eyes of the 1984 victims,” he said. “They are doing nothing to achieve justice and to find out who was behind the conspiracy.”
There were times, Singh said, when his fear for his life nearly trumped his
desire to testify against Tytler. “I considered [withdrawing] many times, but
when I recall the massacre and what I witnessed that day, I just want to stand
by my statement and affidavit.”
“I don’t know how this is happening,” Singh told India-West. “The person who witnessed is afraid for his life, and the person who did these killings has the best security possible. What kind of justice can be given, when witnesses are afraid for safety?”
Elsewhere:
CNN-IBN: "Tytler caught off-guard by witness, calls it a ploy" (includes
earlier interview with Singh)
Express India: "Witness Lost? Not quite"
NDTV: "1984 Riots: Witness against Tytler surfaces"
The Hindustan Times: "'Missing' witness of 1984 rocks RS"
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