Affidavit of Rahul Kuldip Bedi  S/o (late) Dr. Kuldip Chand Bedi aged 33 years and R/o  A-14, Niti Bagh, New Delhi-110049.

I, Rahul Kuldip Bedi, the above mentioned deponent do hereby solemnly affirm and state as under:

1.           That I am a staff correspondent with the “Indian Express” newspaper and at the time of the November, 1984 riots was based in New Delhi.

2.            On November, 1984, around 11.30 AM I learnt of the ongoing massacre in Block 32, Trilokpuri, East Delhi, fron one Mohan Singh later one of the refugees at the Farash Bazaar police station camp. Mohan Singh, who had shaved his head and face only hours before and taken shelter in our office canteen on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, claimed that over 300 people had been massacred by mobs in his block number 32, Trilokpuri.

3.            Mohan Singh had managed to escape under the cover of darkness and head for the safety of our office where he claimed friendship with some “Jansatta” employees.

4.              Around 2 PM on 2 November, 1984, I alongwith Mr. Joseph Maliakan, Staff Correspondent, “Indian Express” and Mr. Alok Tomar, Staff Correspondent, “Jansatta” newspaper, rushed to Trilokpuri.  On arrival at the entrance to the colony we found the way partially blocked by huge concrete pipes and men armed with lathis atop them standing guard.

5.            About 300 yards away from Block 32 we found our path blocked by several hundred strong mob.  Before we could reach them, two policemen, one Head Constable and a Constable, riding a motor cycle, burst through the crowd, coming from the direction of Block 32 headed towards us.

6.           I flagged the motor cycle to a halt and asked the Head Constable driving it whether any killings had taken place in Block No.32.  The policeman said that there “Shanti” in Block 32.  On further probing, he admitted that “only” two people had been ki9lled, no more. On say this he sped away.

7.            On proceeding further, our car was blocked by the mob, which had turned angry by now and had begun stoning us.  A spokesman for the crowd, a short statured man dressed in a white kurta and pyjama, told us to leave or be prepared to face the consequences.  Block 32, he said, was out of bounds.

8.           We headed for the Kalyanpuri police station and asked the duty officer, a Sub-Inspector, whether there was any trouble in Block 32, Trilokpuri.  He too said that the area was perfectly calm and “Shanti” prevailed.  No deaths, he said, had been reported in the area covered by his police station.

9.            A parked truck nearby attracted our attention and on closer inspection we found the back of the vehicle littered with three bodies, charred beyond recognition, and a half-charred, barely alive Sikh Youth lying atop them.  In his quasi-consciousness, the man told us that he was from Punjab and had come visiting relatives in Trilokpuri.  In the early hours of the same morning, a rampaging mob, he said, had killed his hosts, and set him alite after pouring kerosene oil on his body.  He had been brought to the police station around 11 AM, about four hours before we spoke to him.  He had lain there ever since.

10.         When the three bodies in the truck and the half-alive man were pointed out to the duty officer, he denied all knowledge of them saying that they were the responsibility of the Station House Officer, Soor Veer Singh.  The SHO, he said, was away “in Delhi” in connection with a post mortem case and would return only in the evening.

11.         We met an army patrol commanded by Col. P.P.S. Bains who assured us that be would send help to the beleaguered Block 32, in Trilokpuri. We returned to Trilokpuri around 4 pm only to find that no army or police patrols had visited the re-settlement colony.

12.         Seeking help, we met an Air Force patrol, led by a Squadron Leader, near the ITO Bridge. The officer however, refused to help on the plea that the Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, was to visit Shahdara area in a few hours time and he had been instructed to make secure the route leading to the colony. He referred us to an army truck parked nearby.

13.        The NCO commanding the truck full of troops said that he had lost his formation and could do nothing for us. However, he asked us to go to the ITO flyover bridge where the army had posted a wireless look-out.

14.         The Second Lieutenant manning the wireless post also pleaded helplessness as he too had lost his formation somewhere in the Model Town area of North Delhi, and was in search of it. He advised us to go the nearby Delhi Police Headquarters building.

15.          We arrived at Police Headquarters around 5 pm and went straight to the rook of the then Police Commissioner, Mr. Subhash Tandon. Mr. Nikhil Kumar, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, manning the telephones in the office, was informed of the situation that we thought prevailed in Block 32, Trilokpuri.

16.         Mr. Nikhil Kumar, asserting that he was a “mere guest artist” informed the police control room, the maximum he was prepared to do. The other officers present at this juncture were Mr. N.S. Rana, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police (later promoted to Additional Commissioner of Police). These officers were preset whenever I went to the Commissioner’s room over the next couple of days.

17.       On returning to Trilokpuri around 6 pm, we found the Kalyanpuri SHO, Soor Veer Singh, accompanied by two constable, arriving in a van. Soor Veer Singh said that he had radioed his senior officer, particularly his DCP, Seva Dass, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police of the massacre.

18.         Soor Veer Singh, waking over the sea of hundreds of charred and mutilated bodies in Block 32, told me “the Mussalmans are responsible for this.”

19.         No the police force arrived for the one hour I was in Block 32, helping shocked riot victims to safety.

20.         On returning to Police Headquarters, we were told by Mr. Nikhil Kumar that he had done his job by informing the control room.

21.         At this juncture, Hukam Chand Jatav, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, returning from a tour of trans-Jamna colonies – on his own admittance – arrived in the Police Commissioner’s room and declared that “Shanti” prevailed in the entire area, particularly Trilokpuri. He specifically mentioned as having been present during these exchanges, others in the room included Mr. David Devdass and Mr. Ashutosh Handoo, both reporters from the “Hindustan Times” and two reporters from “The Patriot.”

22.         When we stressed the urgency of the situation, Hukam Chand Jatav enquired from Mr. Nikhil Kumar as to why he had not been told of the emergency as he was in his office, a floor above, when we appraised the latter around 5 pm. A short argument ensued between the two policemen in which Mr. Nikhil Kumar said that he had called the control room – the limit of his duty.

23.         Hukam Chand Jatav arrived at Block 32, Trilokpuri around 7 pm, over 30 hours after the killings had begun on 1^st November`84. Mr. Joseph Maliakan, who stayed back to instill confidence in the benumbed riot victims, met him.

24.         The following morning, 3 November`84, when I alongwith Mr. Maliakan returned to Trilokpuri we found two bodies smouldering just inside the entrance to the colony. On returning 45 minutes later, after a visit to Block 32, we found two more bodies added onto the pile.

25.         Sewa Dass, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, East District, who had just come into the colony was running about confusedly from house to house, trying to make enquiries about the smoldering bodies. Without waiting to investigate, he rushed off to Block 32, in a panic stricken state.