The union government of India has decided to reopen 28 more cases of the victims of the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, news agency PTI has reported.
A Special Investigation Team appointed by India’s home ministry will look into these cases which earlier couldn’t be concluded due to lack of evidence. According to reports, an official order has been issued for further investigation into these 28 cases.
The move assumes significance due to the upcoming 2017 Punjab election.
With these 28 cases, the special investigation team now has 77 cases to probe.
An SIT was set up in February last year following recommendations by a committee set up by the government.
According to official data, 3,325 people were killed in the violence that followed the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. 2,733 people were killed in Delhi alone. Hundreds more were killed in other states such as, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh etc.
So far, India’s premier investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation had reopened only four of the 241 cases closed by the Delhi police citing lack of evidence, after the Justice Nanavati Commission recommended reopening of those four cases.
Earlier, in June this year, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a scathing letter to India's prime minister Narendra Modi, had slammed the SIT for not producing any results. He had asked Mr. Modi to wind up the SIT and allow the Delhi state government to set up its own SIT probe the closed cases.
