Jasbir Singh, who claims that former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler played a key role in instigating the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, is to depose before a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation in San Fransisco, United States.

A two-member special CBI team has arrived in New York en route to San Fransisco to record the statement of Singh, who is now based in California in the US west-coast.

Though Singh has been making allegations for the past three years, he has repeatedly refused to return to India to testify before the special courts hearing the 1984 riot cases, saying he feared for his life.

Singh has alleged that former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler played a key role in instigating anti-Sikh rioters in 1984.

He has filed several affidavits against Tytler, an influential Congress leader of Delhi [Images], before various Commissions, saying he was willing to testify before the court provided his and his family's safety was guaranteed.

The CBI team was also expected to record the statement of another witness Jasbinder Singh, who is settled in New York, but officials were tight-lipped about it.

"We have sent a team to the US to record the statement of two persons. They do not want to come to India," CBI Director Ashwini Kumar told media persons in New Delhi on Tuesday.

CBI's move to visit the US marks a U-turn from its earlier position demanding the presence of Singh and other witnesses in India. The agency, which had on September 29, 2007 filed an affidavit in a court seeking closure of case against Tytler on the plea that Singh was untraceable, was directed by the court to submit the address of Singh, declared as a crucial witness.