I, Rahul Kuldip Bedi, S/o Late Dr. Kuldip Chand Bedi, aged 33 yrs., 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 November 1984, riots was based in New Delhi.

2.                  That on 2^nd November, `84, around 11:30 a.m. I learnt of the on going massacre in Block 32, Trilokpuri, East  Delhi, from one – Mohan Singh- later one of the refugees at the Farsh Bazaar, Police Station camp.  Mohan Singh, who had shaved his beard 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.                  That 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.                  That around 2:00 pm on 2^nd November, 1984, I along with 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.                  That about 300 yards away from Block 32 we found our path blocked by a 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.                  That I flagged the motor cycle to a halt and asked the Head Constable driving it whether any killings had taken place in Block 32.  The policemen said that them was ‘shanti’ in Block 32.  On further probing, he admitted that “only” two people had been killed, no more.  Shying this, he sped away.

7.                  That 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 men 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.                  That 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.                  That  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 11:00 am,  about four hours before we spoke to him.  He had lain there ever since.

10.             That 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 Vir 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 Colonel P.P.S. Bains who-assured us that he would send help to the beleaguered Block 32 in Trilokpuri.  We returned to Trilokpuri around 4:00 P.M. 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 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 Head Quarter building.

15.             We arrived at Police H.Q. around 5:00 P.M. and went straight to the room of then Police Commissioner, Mr. Subhash Tandan.  Mr. Nikhil Kumar, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, manning the the telephones in the office, was informed of the situation that we thought prevailed in Block 32, Trilokpuri.

16.             Mr. Nikhil Kumar, assorting that he was a “more 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 and Mr. F.L.R. Siama, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police (later promoted to Additional Commissioner of Police).  These officers were present whenever went to the Commissioner’s room over the next couple of days.

17.             On returning to Trilokpuri around 6:00 P.M. we found the Kalyanpuri SHO, Soor Veer Singh, accompanied by two constables, 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 even the sea of hundreds of charred and mutilated bodies in Block 32, told me “the Musclemen  are responsible for this”.

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

20.             On returning to Police Head Quarters, 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 Trilokpuri as being “calm”.  Besides the other police officers 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 5:00 P.M.  A short argument ensued between the two policemen in which Mr.Nikhil Kumar said that he had called the control room-the limit of is duty.

23.             Hukam Chand Jatav arrived at Block 32, Trilokpuri around 7:00 P.M. over 30 hours after the killings had begun on 1^st Nov.`84, Mr.Joseph Maliakan, who stayed back to instill confidence in the benumbed riot victims, met him.

24.             The following morning, 3^rd Nov.`84, when I along with Mr. Maliakan returned to Trilokpuri we found two bodies smoldering 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 came 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.

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