CHANDIGARH:With the Delhi Assembly elections fast approaching, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday sought ‘direct and personal intervention’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe all cases related to 1984 Anti-Sikh riots.
Badal urged the Centre to take an immediate call on the recommendations of Justice (Retd) G P Mathur Committee, that was constituted by the Centre to reinvestigate several important cases related to anti-Sikh violence that broke out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
With Punjabi votes constituting about 24 per cent of the Delhi electorate, they can turn the tide in about a dozen seats.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Badal said that the Shiromani Akali Dal had been struggling to get justice for the victims of 1984 riots in Delhi and other parts of the country.
The Punjab Chief Minister said that it was on the demand of the SAD that the Justice (Retd) G P Mathur panel had been constituted in December, 2014 by the NDA Government to examine the possibility of constituting an SIT for reinvestigating the 1984 genocide.
Badal also said that now the former SC judge, in his 45-page report, had suggested setting up of an SIT and had also favoured reinvestigation of many vital cases, where crucial evidence was overlooked, adding that there were several such cases that were closed by the Delhi police and were never sent to the court for trial.
Even two high profile cases involving Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler needed to be reinvestigated, Badal added.