On Tuesday, four more people were arrested for brutally killing 13 people in the Dabauli and Govind Nagar areas of Kanpur during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Special Investigation Team probing the case revealed that one of the accused is a three-time corporator from Congress and is in his 70s today.
According to the reports, all the accused who have been identified as Rajan Lal Pandey, Deepak Dammulal, Dhirendra Tiwari, and Kailash Pal are old and aged between 70-75 years. Only Pandey is 85 years old. Further according to SIT DIG Balendu Bhushan Singh, arrests were made in four cases as a result of SIT team activities. Of the 73 individuals charged in 11 cases, the team has so far detained 21 of them.
Pandey, Dammulal, and Tiwari have been arrested for brutally murdering six people in three cases while Pal who was Congress corporator for three terms then has been arrested for the Dabauli killings. Pal had reportedly killed Vishakh Singh, his wife Simran Kaur, daughter Gurbachan Kaur and four of his sons.
Pal and two other corporators led the mob to Singh’s home, where they initially stole money and other valuables before killing seven members of a family. Two of Vishakh Singh’s surviving sons who had immigrated from Kanpur, Mahendra Singh and Avtar Singh, had made their testimonies as eyewitnesses and named Pal as the mob leader in their declarations.
Reports mention that the officers who led the SIT team investigation to arrest the four accused were named Surya Pratap Singh, Sunil Kanaujia, Jitendra Kumar Singh, and Sanjay Maurya. The teams led by all four officers would get a cash reward of ₹10,000, the SIT DIG said.
The 1984 Anti-Sikh riots took place aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31st October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards as revenge for Operation Blue Star. From 1st November to 4th November, Sikhs across the country were killed. The government figures suggest the angry mobs, many of which were led by Congress leaders, brutally murdered 3350 Sikhs.
Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler were directly accused of a large role in orchestrating the riots. However, Congress had tried to justify the riots. On 19th November 1984, while giving a speech in front of thousands of people, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said, “Jab Bhi koi bata ped girta hai, to dharti thodi hilti hai. (When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.)”
As per the government reports, more than 3350 Sikhs were killed in the riots. However, the unofficial figures claim that around 8,000 to 17,000 Sikhs lost their lives.
