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BEFORE JUSTICE NANAVATI COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (Witness No: 138) Name : Shri Ranjit Singh Narula On SA In paragraph 4 of my affidavit 0815 hours is wrongly typed. It should have been typed as 2015 hours. In the same paragraph I have described my son – in – law as Major General Rajinder Singh. At the relevant time he was a Brigadier. During the time when Shri V.P. Singh was the Prime Minister we had met the then Home Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed and had requested him to establish special courts for trying cases relating to Anti – Sikh Riots. After consulting the Law Ministry they had informed us that establishing special courts may take long time and that instead three courts will be spared to deal exclusively with such cases. The Government had thereafter through the High Court nominated three Additional District & Sessions Judges to try such cases. One such court was of Shri J.B. Goel, ASJ at Tis Hazari, another was of Shri S.S. Bal, ASJ at Patiala House and the third one was by another Judge of Shahdara. Shri. Goel had convicted the accused in few cases which had been tried by him. Shri. Bal had acquitted the accused in most of the cases which were tried by him. When the Congress Government came back to power in 1991, all the cases pending before Mr. Goel were initially transferred to another ASJ and subsequently they all were transferred to the court of Shri Bal. Later on the cases pending in the Shahdara court were also transferred to Mr. Bal’s Court by putting Mr. Bal Incharge of that Court. Justice R.N. Mishra had recommended appointment of three Committees – One for non-registration of cases inspite of affidavits and other evidence being available, the second for finding out if any police officer had abetted the mob to commit the criminal acts or had failed to perform his duty in protecting the Sikhs and their properties. The first Committee consisted of Justice M.L. Jain (Retd.) and Mr. Banerjee, a retired police officer of Inspector General rank. It was appointed in about February, 1987. This Committee had recommended in September, 1987 filing of murder case against a batch of six persons including Shri Sajjan Kumar, a leader of the Congress Party and Brahmanand Gupta who was stated to have supplied free kerosene oil for burning the properties of Sikhs. This recommendation was not accepted by the Government. The Committee had again in November, 1987 recommended registration of cases against those persons. The Government had not complied with this recommendation also. Shri Brahmanand Gupta then had filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the appointment of the Committee and had applied for staying all proceedings before that Committee. The stay application was not opposed by the Government and the court had granted the stay, stayed further proceedings before the Committee and had also directed the Government not to take any action on the basis of the recommendation made by that Committee. Even this prayer was not opposed to by the Government. Citizens Justice Committee then filed an application for vacating the stay. Justice Wad was inclined to vacate the stay. At that stage the Government advocate had applied for two weeks adjournment for producing some documents. Hearing of that application was, therefore, adjourned for 20th May, 1989. The acting Chief Justice was then approached by Mr. Bhardwaj, then Minister of State for Law and Justice, with a request to retransfer all the cases including the application filed by us before Justice Wad’s Court to the Acting Chief Justice’s Court or some other court. The then acting Chief Justice had not accepted this request. I was informed about this by the acting Chief Justice Shri S.S. Chadha who happen to be my son – in – law. Thereafter Mr. Justice Pyne of the Calcutta High Court was appointed as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. Mr. Justice Pyne, even before he took over as Chief Justice, gave directions on 19th May, 1989 to the Registrar, Delhi High Court that he would be joining on 20th and that the cases pending before Justice Wad should be listed before his Bench. In view of those instructions our application was listed before Chief Justice Pyne’s Court on 20th. The Bench consisting of Mr. Pyne rejected our request for vacation of stay and directed that the main matter be heard soon. The writ petition was ultimately heard by a regular Bench and the writ petition was allowed on technical grounds regarding power of supervision. Later on when Shri V.P. Singh’s Government again came into power, a new Committee consisting of Justice Poti and Mr. Rosha was appointed in consonance with order passed by the High Court. This Committee had also recommended registration of all five criminal cases against those five persons. After registration of a case against them, the CBI had gone to the house of Mr. Sajjan Kumar to arrest him. Before he could be removed from his house, a huge crowd had collected near his house and therefore it had become difficult for the CBI to take him out immediately. While the CBI officers were at the house of Sajjan Kumar, they had received a telephone call from the Registrar of Delhi High Court conveying them that Mr. Sajjan Kumar’s Advocate had approached the High Court. An order was passed staying his arrest. After this order Mr. Sajjan Kumar was not arrested. After investigation the CBI had added the charge for the offence punishable under section 153A IPC. I say that this was done deliberately with a view to delay the filing of the charge sheet as previous sanction of the appropriate Government had become necessary before any court could have taken cognizance of the offence punishable under section 153A. The file was submitted to the Central Government which did not pass any order on it and kept it pending for two years. At that time the Congress Government, of which Shri Narashima Rao was the Prime Minister, was in power. Ultimately, sanction was given by the Lt. Governor during the B.J.P. Government. It was during B.J.P. regime when required sanction was granted. The Jain Agarwal Committee had recommended registration of criminal cases against some VIPs and high Police Officers. The State Authorities did not register cases in which there were eyewitnesses and whose affidavits were available before that Committee but had registered cases where the witnesses had merely stated that they had not seen VIPs but were told about their presence in the mobs. Thereafter in August – September, 1993 one senior police officer had approached Mr. Manoj Mitta of India Today and had told him to publish an article mentioning that witnesses in those cases had backed out. When, we the Citizens Justice Committee inquired, Shri Manoj brought the list of those cases. When the witnesses of those cases were approached by the representative of the Citizens Justice Committee alongwith Shri Manoj, it was found out none of them had stated that they had seen any of those VIPs in the mob indulging in illegal acts but were told about their involvement. At that time it was realized that the State Government had not forwarded to the Delhi Police the affidavits of those persons who had directly seen the involvement of those VIPs in Commission of crimes stated to have been committed by them. The files had remained with the Government for two years even though there was a direction of the Lt. Governor to register those cases. It is only after Shri Madan Lal Khurana’s Government came to power the files containing those affidavits were forwarded to the police. Jain Agarwal Committee had recommended registration of two murder cases against Shri H.K.L. Bhagat. This recommendation was accepted by the then Lt. Governor Markandey Singh who was appointed as Lt. Governor, Delhi when Chandra Shekhar Government was in power. On an objection raised by Shri H.K.L. Bhagat that no case should be registered against him as he was exonerated by Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, the State Government had referred the matter back to the Lt. Governor. At that time the Congress Government was in power. The Lt. Governor had sought the opinion of the Jain - Agarwal Committee on this objection. The Committee had opined that there was still no bar on the prosecution of Shri Bhagat. Accordingly, the Lt. Governor had again ordered registration of two cases against him. Soon thereafter Shri Markandey Singh was removed as a Lt. Governor by the Congress Government. Thereafter both the cases were not registered for long time. They came to be registered when the BJP Government came into power. Departmental proceedings were pending against some police officers in connection with the action or in – action during the Anti – Sikh Riots. With a view to delay those proceedings criminal cases were filed against those police officers without applying for the sanction of the Government under section 197 Cr.P.C. The Magistrate, for want of sanction, ultimately dismissed those criminal cases. Inspite of the settled legal position the Government filed Revision Petition against those orders instead of granting sanction or proceeding with the departmental proceedings. This Revision Petition had remained pending in the High Court for few years and was ultimately dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage. No.cross examination by Shri S.S. Gandhi, Senior Advocate on behalf of Delhi Police. No Cross examination by Shri Ashok Kashyap, Advocate on behalf of Central Government.
(RANJIT SINGH NARULA)
( G.T. NANAVATI )
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