Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday told a court that it has the recorded statements of five witnesses in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case involving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in Delhi.
The CBI, while submitting a status report on its investigation, told the court that it can’t reveal the names of the witnesses because their lives were in danger.
Sources have told CNN-IBN that at least three of those five witnesses have favoured Tytler in their deposition. Only one witness has deposed that Tytler was present at the Pul Bangash Gurdwara in Novemeber 1984 in Delhi and instigated a mob to attack Sikhs.
The five witnesses do not include Jasbir Singh, who lives in California, US, and is willing to depose before Indian courts through video conferencing. The CBI insists that Jasbir will have to come to India.
Jasbir, who fears visiting India, alleges he saw Tytler inciting a mob during the riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. He accuses the CBI of not recording his statement.
IANS reports the defence lawyer in the case moved an application asking for a copy of the report along with the whereabouts of all four witnesses the investigating agency has examined till now.
Opposing the defence plea, the CBI told the court that revealing the identities of the witnesses at this juncture could pose a danger to their lives as the investigation was in a critical stage.
The CBI filed its status report in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain.
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