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MEMORIES OF MADNESS: A 1984 riot widow appeals for justice during a protest march in Delhi.

        

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Rajdeep Sardesai

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The assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 sparked a bloody carnage. Over 2,700 Sikhs were killed on the streets of Delhi between November 1 and November 4 and an estimated thousand more were murdered in other parts of India.

Independent investigations into the riots say the attacks were largely led by Congress workers and were tacitly supported by the administration.

The Justice G T Nanavati Commission has said Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and H K L Bhagat were among those who had incited violent mobs in Delhi. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had almost let off Tytler but had to re-open the probe after key witnesses Jasbir Singh and Surinder Singh came forward last year.

Those seeking justice for those killed in 1984 have found new voices. But is it too little and too late? Twenty-three years and 10 enquiry commissions later, Gurcharan Singh hopes it is not so.

Gurcharan was 17 in November 1984 when he was beaten by a mob and thrown into a burning truck. He was crippled and still suffers from pain.

“The mob torched my family’s truck. I was hiding in the kitchen but they saw me. They beat up my family and two men dragged me away from the kitchen and threw me into the burning truck,” alleges Gurcharan.

Magroo Singh was 12 when a mob in Delhi’s Trilokpuri Colony forced a burning tyre over him. “They burnt me alive and left me for dead. For three days I lay among a pile of corpses watching the carnage around,” says Magroo.

Today, riot victims like Magroo and Gurcharan want to tell their stories in court. “I will testify that H K L Bhagat was involved in the riots,” says Gurcharan Singh.

Gurcharan was granted his wish when after more than two decades the CBI came to record his testimony.

Mohan Singh hasn’t had that luck though. He alleges that at least 300 Sikhs were massacred in a single lane of Trilokpuri but the murderers have not been booked.