Jamshedpur : All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) has accused the State Government for misguiding the Court to cover up complicity of involvement of political leaders and other accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Addressing a press conference in Jamshedpur, State president of the federation Satnam Singh Gambhir said that the State Home Department has filed a Counter Affidavit in response to his Civil Writ ( PIL) No. 5251 of 2013 in Jharkhand High Court.
In the Counter Affidavit , the Home Department has said that the Jharkhand Government has taken a decision that there is no requirement of constitution of � One Man Commission� for disposal of 1984 Sikh riots cases as the same does not appear to be necessary for the Jharkhand. He said that Jharkhand has witnessed similar bloodshed during the riots, a One Man Commission� should be formed.
Gambhir said that the State Government does not seem serious to provide justice to the victims of the riots. He said that the assassination of Indira Gandhi led to the 1984 Sikh Massacre in India.
Sikhs in Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Ramgarh and Adityapur ( Seraikela Kharsawan District) were murdered to death while their properties were destroyed.
He said that though the Government has claimed to pay Rs 14,99,35,556 to victims but just paying the compensation cannot bring justice to the victims. Government needs to book people responsible for the genocide and take legal action against them.
He said that Counter Affidavit has also accepted the fact that 21 cases is still pending in the district of Palamau for the payment of compensation.
He said that as per the FIR filed by the police in Bokaro alone 90 Sikhs were killed. There were several families whose members became handicapped for life and lost means of livelihood.
Surprisingly the number of victims mentioned in FIR reports is different what the Government Report claims. As per the police in Bokaro alone 90 Sikhs were killed while as per the Government claims 79 persons died during the riots.
�As per the Government records, a total of 460 cases of murders and violence were filed in Jharkhand during the riots. Out of these cases only 129 cases have been filed in the Court. While 130 cases were branded � unsolved� and the files of these cases were shelved. To utter surprise, even after 30 years of the genocide about 13 cases are still pending in different courts of Jharkhand in which the initial investigation has not been called into�, said Gambhir.
�The Congress party has consistently used every trick to cover up the active complicity of its leaders and workers in perpetrating this massacre. Witnesses were threatened and victims were stopped from filing cases in police stations,� he said.
