1)
On the evening of November
1, I went to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj about 4 PM on haring of trouble there. I
was assigned to go there because I am a staff reporter with the Indian
Express. I had been there for a short while when I saw Mr. Gautam Kaul,
then Additional Commissioner of Police, New Delhi range standing to a
side.
2)
Outside the gurdwara I saw
a crowd of about 4,000 men led by Congress-I leader Kamal Nath. At the
time I went there the crowd was on the road. Some weremaking week attemps
to enter the Gurdwara, but the Congress-I M.P. and other leaders of the
same party who were with him were keeping them under some control.
3)
I learnt that earlier in
the day there had not been such control, and that the mob hadtried toenter
the gurdwara. They retracted when some men fired from within the Gurdwara.
After that at least two Sikhs outside the Gurdwara were lynched by the
mob. When I reached there I saw the bodies of two men, both Sikhs, still
burning on the roadside. There were rumours that four non-Sukhs had been
burnt inside the Gurdwara, but the police said they had entered the
Gurdawara, searched every place but found no hostages or bodies.
4)
As is evident from
television shots that day, Mr. Gautam Kaul was conducting mourners at Teen
Murti house when firing, killing and burning was taking place close by in
the area under his charge. When he did come, he stood to a side without
making any efforts to check the crowd. Leaders of the crowd seemed fully
in charge. At one point a group charged towards the Gurdwara gate to a
side near which Mr. Kaul stood. But seeing them he retreated instead of
checking them. The police officer was obviously a passive spectator to
commands by Congress-I leaders.
