Shiromani Akali Dal on Monday claimed senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler admitted to having “killed a hundred Sikhs” during the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi.
Akali Dal leader Manjit Singh GK released a video which appears to have been recorded in December 2011, claiming the sting operation tapes were dropped at his doorstep by an unknown person.
GK held a press conference in Delhi and played the video clips, claiming he has written to the CBI about the video clips and offered to hand them over.
“The government must arrest Tytler and get his lie detector, narco and polygraph tests conducted,” he said.
Citing a part of the video that begins with a cut and the full context of which is not clear, Akali Dal claimed Tytler had admitted to killing the Sikhs in the 1984 riots.
Jagdish Tytler said the video was fake, accusing the Akali Dal of spreading lies and said he would take legal action.
He said he was willing to face an inquiry. “The Akalis are known to tell lies. Do a narco [narco analysis] test on me and the man who made the tape. I will take the Akalis and those who made the tape to the court,” he told NDTV.
In the video, a man the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP claim is Jagdish Tytler, is also claiming to have appointed two judges who would protect him. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.
The BJP had filed a police complaint demanding an immediate arrest of Tytler.
According to the government of India’s records, nearly three thousand Sikhs were killed in the violence that broke out after the assassination of then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. However, Sikh activists who have been fighting to get justice for the victims, say the number of those killed was much higher.
Tytler - then a member of parliament - was accused of inciting a mob that killed three men during the three days of violence that had engulfed Delhi and many other parts of India. But he was cleared of the allegations by India’s premier investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. Later a court asked the CBI to restart the investigation after a witness claimed he had seen Tytler at the scene of the riots.
After the videos were released on Monday, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal called Tytler a "genocide perpetrator" and also called for an investigation into the Gandhi family's role.
Senior lawyer and Aam Aadmi Party leader HS Phoolka said the CBI was legally bound to investigate the new evidence against Tytler.
To see stories from SBS Punjabi on top of your Facebook news feed, click on three dots next to News Feed icon on the top left corner of the screen, click on Edit preferences, then Prioritise who to see first and select SBS Punjabi.
