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Tearing
Tytler
Kalam Nishan Singh
A fortnight
after media tracked down the witness that India’s CBI said it could
not, another witness was caught in a sting operation by a respected
TV channel. Jagdish Tytler was exposed thoroughly as Surinder Singh
described how he witnessed men being burnt alive
 India's
CNN-IBN TV news channel which claims credit for tracking down Jasbir
Singh, one of the key witnesses in the case against former Indian
minister Jagdish Tytler, has now caught another witness in a hidden
camera operation who had seen Tytler leading blood thirsty mobs, saw
murders before his eyes, gave his testimony to Nanawati Commission,
but had later retracted it.
The
CNN-IBN Special Investigation revealed on December 21 evening the
testimony of Surinder Singh, then granthi of Pulbangash Gurdwara in
north Delhi, was shown saying that he saw Tytler leading the mob on
November 1, 1984, and inciting them by saying "they have killed our
mother". Unaware of the hidden camera, Surinder Singh said he saw
the three men being burnt to death in the presence of Tytler.
Following assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984,
nearly 3,000 Sikh men, women and children were killed across the
country, and as per official statistics, 2,733 Sikhs were killed on
Delhi's roads alone, mostly burnt by using used cycle tyres.
Twenty-three years, 10 investigative commissions, 13 convictions and
an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh haven't done much to
heal the wounds.
Witnesses turning hostile was one of the biggest problems the
prosecution faced in the case and the investigative agencies had to
shut cases registered against various accused like senior Congress
leader and former minister Jagdish Tytler.
 Now
the head granthi of Majnu-ka-Tilla gurudwara, he had made all these
allegations in an affidavit filed before the Nanavati Commission
probing the 1984 riots but had later retracted his statement.
Surinder Singh has now brought the truth to the fore, of course
thanks to being caught on hidden camera, and explained how he
changed his statement under pressure and said he had told Justice
Nanawati that he will retract his statement of the government
changed and the Congress came to power.
Narrating what he saw on November 1, 1984, Surinder Singh explained
how the frenzied mob accompanying Tytler killed Badal Singh, a
gurudwara sewadar, retired inspector Thakur Singh, who tried to stop
the mob, and another unidentified person. He said he was also caught
by the mob but escaped after he started swinging his kirpan around.
The
mob dispersed when police on the spot began firing from behind a
tree and asked him to run back into the gurdwara. Unaware of being
on camera, he admitted that he was pressurised by Tytler to retract
his statement to the Nanavati Commission.
After Jasbir Singh coming on record in a similar case, this is the
second eye witness to emerge against Tytler. Jasbir Singh had also
alleged that he saw Tytler leading a mob which had resulted in a
Delhi court questioning the clean chit given by the CBI to Tytler in
the anti Sikh pogroms related case.
Given below is an English translation of Surinder Singh's testimony.
(Readers may visit WSN website
www.WorldSikhNews.com to
access the complete testimony verbatim in Punjabi as well as its
translation).
 CNN-IBN:
Te Tytler ne laayi aag onu? (Was Tytler the
instigator?)
Surinder Singh: He was leading the charge. I have said it, I
have given written statements. He was standing near the Masjid and
egging on the mob, "Kill them! They have killed our mother.
CNN-IBN: Tussi apni akkaan naal vekhya si? (Did you see this
with your own eyes ?)
Surinder Singh: With my own eyes I saw three murders. Badal
Singh left after keertan at 8 am. The mob surrounded him at Azad
market, I'm talking about November 1. He ran into the house of one
Amarjeet Singh, and hid there. For an hour the mob could not find
him. He came out an hour later. They spotted him. He ran to the
terrace of the house. He brought out his kripan to defend himself.
Someone grabbed it and stabbed him in the stomach with the kripan.
We saw it all from our roof. After the stabbing, Badal didn't die
immediately.
Surinder Singh: They threw his body down from the
 second
floor. Then they loaded it onto a garbage barrow. We were watching
from the top. There they started dancing as if it was a wedding.
They then brought him in front of the Gurudwara. There they put a
tire around his neck, they had tires with them. Badal Singh was
screaming and crying in pain but they put the tire around him,
sprinkled kerosene and lit the fire. The man was burnt alive.
Surinder Singh: In the morning, before the attack, at 8 am,
Inspector Thakur Singh was with me. He was in our Gurudwara
committee since her had retired from the police. He had come to the
Gurudwara on the 31st. That night the mobs were already burning
cars. In the morning when the attacks started, he (Thakur Singh)
said Gyaniji don't go out. I've been in the police, stay behind me.
He tried talking to the mob, told them there was a school nearby
with Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in it. But nobody was ready to listen
to him.
Surinder Singh: The policemen said the SHO was not with them.
They said they had locked him up at the thana. Because the local SHO
was a Sikh named Amarjeet Singh. He (Tytler) was there with the
police.
Surinder Singh also described the killing of another man that
morning, a man who worked at a local television store, a revelation
being made for the first time.
 Surinder
Singh: After Badal Singh hid in the TV shopowner Amarjeet's
house. The mob found Amarjeet's servant. They killed him as well.
The burnt him in front of the Gurudwara as well. So there were three
killings, Badal Singh, Police Inspector Thakur Singh and Amarjeet's
servant.
Just days after the riots, Surinder Singh claimed Tytler came to
meet him at the Gurudwara.
Surinder Singh: On November 10, Jagdish Tytler came to the
Gurudwara and asked me to sign on two sheets of paper, which I
refused to sign.
Surinder Singh claimed that in his first deposition before the
Nanavati Commission he had openly declared that if he faced pressure
and death threats from Congress, he would turn hostile.
Surinder Singh: Judge Nanavati questioned me why didn't you
speak up before, why have you spoken out after so many years. I told
him that earlier it was the rule of the Congress Party how could've
I said anything against them?
26 December, 2007
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