Court to CBI: Get Jasbir to depose via video-con

READY AT LAST: CBI has to tell court if video-conferencing can be used in Jasbir Singh's (above) deposition.

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New Delhi: In a CNN-IBN impact, the main witness in the 1984 riots case, Jasbir Singh is all set to depose as witness in the case.

The CBI has told the court that it has finally managed to track down Jasbir Singh and speak to him.

The court has asked the CBI to let it know by December 18 whether video-conferencing facility can be used for his testimony.

However, CBI sources have told CNN-IBN that they do not expect Jasbir's deposition to affect the outcome of the case.

Just last Thursday, CBI had filed an affidavit at a Delhi court, virtually exonerating Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case due to lack of evidence and witnesses.

But just hours after that, CNN-IBN traced Jasbir Singh, in California.

While the CBI had declared that the ‘main witness Jasbir Singh’ is untraceable, it took CNN-IBN only a few hours to locate Singh in his California residence.

In an exclusive telephonic interview, Singh had told CNN-IBN that the CBI had not established any contact with him. “The CBI did not contact me at all,” he said. “It’s been 18 years. No court or commission called me for my testimony.”

“Had they contacted me, I could have given them my testimony,” he said.

Jasbir Singh also revealed that instead of the CBI, it was Tytler’s supporters who hounded him all the while and even threatened him and his family.

For the CBI and Tytler, it’s an embarrassment hard to digest. So the CBI came to CNN-IBN, asking for help.

“'It appears from the reporting of your TV channel that Jasbir Singh is in contact with your TV channel. It is requested that if any telephone number or address of Jasbir Singh is available with you, then it may kindly be provided for the purpose of investigation. Accordingly, the Interpol shall be contacted for the purpose of recording the statement of Jasbir Singh,” read a statement sent by the CBI to CNN-IBN.