Jagdish Tytler in 2009. File picture

New Delhi, April 10: A Delhi court has set aside the CBI’s closure report four years after the agency gave Jagdish Tytler a clean chit in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, paving the way for a fresh probe into the Congress leader’s role.

The case relates to the killing of three persons — Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh — who had taken shelter in a north Delhi gurdwara on November 1, 1984.

“This is a big victory for us. The CBI was ready with the chargesheet against Tytler, but the then director overlooked it under pressure from the government and the CBI filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Tytler,” H.S. Phoolka, a lawyer who has been fighting for the riot victims for 29 years, said.

“The government should understand that while they go on and on about the Gujarat riots and demand justice for victims, the 1984 riot victims are also human beings and deserve the same.”

In its judgment today, the court ordered the reopening of the case against Tytler and set aside the order of the trial court that accepted the CBI’s closure report in 2010. Hundreds of riots’ victims celebrated outside the court as soon as news broke.

The court asked the CBI to investigate the matter afresh by talking to all witnesses, including those who had come forward after the closure report was filed.

A CBI spokesperson said the agency would first study the order and then decide whether to re-investigate or move a higher court against the order.

This is not the first time a court has rejected the CBI’s closure report on Tytler. In December 2007, a local court had directed the agency to re-investigate his role in the riots.

After re-investigation, the CBI again filed a closure report in April 2009, saying there was no evidence against Tytler. The report was later accepted by the court.

Lakhwinder Kaur, the widow of one of the men killed, challenged the 2009 closure report contending the CBI had not recorded the testimony of two key witnesses who have since moved to the US.

During hearings last week, the CBI prosecutor sought the dismissal of Lakhwinder’s petition, saying investigations made it clear Tytler was not present at Pulbangash Gurdwara on November 1, 1984.

The CBI prosecutor argued that at the time of the incident Tytler was at Teen Murti Bhavan. The body of Indira Gandhi, who had been killed by her Sikh security guards the day before, was kept there for people to pay their last respects.

“After 29 years, we could only hope that justice will be served and Tytler will be punished. All we had for all these years was hope,” said a teary Lakhwinder, dressed in white salwar-kurta and head covered by her dupatta.

Another Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar, is also facing trial for the alleged murder of Sikhs near the Delhi cantonment area. The court has reserved orders in the case against Kumar.

The 1984 riots, in which nearly 3,000 Sikhs died, were a backlash to the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Recently, the Supreme Court upheld the life term awarded to four persons for burning two men to death during the riots.