Tytler incitingd mob to attack Sikhs during 1984 riots: Witness
"Accused Jagdish Tytler addressed the mob standing there to loot and kill the Sikhs, to loot the gurdwara as 'they have killed our mother' ('Sikho ko maro ku**o, unhonae hamari maa ko mara hai'). I myself saw and heard the same from accused Jagdish Tytler," 70-year-old Harpal Kaur Bedi said, deposing before the court of special judge Jitendra Singh.
Three Sikhs, Sardar Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh, were killed on Nov 1, 1984, in a mob violence in Pul Bangash that followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
On Aug 30, 2024, a special court ordered the framing of charges against Tytler for the offences of murder, abetment, rioting, promoting enmity between groups and being a part of an unlawful assembly. The court said the material brought on record showed prima facie that the accused was a member of an unlawful assembly of persons at the gurdwara in the area.
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The cross-examination will continue before the court on Saturday.
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The judge noted that Bedi, one of the three key witnesses in the case, seemed to be exhausted as she was subjected to lengthy cross-examination since the morning session. Tytler's counsels, advocates Anil Kumar Sharma, Apoorav Sharma and Anuj Sharma, started Bedi's cross-examination after her statement.
Bedi said she did not name Tytler in her first statement on March 1, 2016, as her son was threatened for life by Tytler's men.
"He was my only son, and for the sake of his life, I kept mum." Her son died in 2015 and, Bedi said, "From that time, I did not have any fear."
While ordering the framing of charges, the court accepted the public prosecutor's contention that due to fear, the eyewitnesses couldn't depose truthfully before various agencies, committees or commissions probing the riots. The court said it appeared that the first priority of the family members of the victims, witnesses to the killings and lootings, was their own and their family's safety.
Bedi told CBI on March 1, 2016, that she saw a white Ambassador car coming from the side of the gurdwara and Tytler sitting inside the vehicle. "The car was moving slowly and Tytler, while sitting inside the car, made a gesture to the people engaged in violence. While gesturing, he said 'maro, maro' and swiftly moved out."
Bedi denied that CBI had suggested that she change the statement as one could not hear what a person sitting inside a car had said. "I got confused with the questioning of CBI. My later version regarding coming out of the accused from the car and inciting the mob is the correct version," she stressed.
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