UP cops examine 1984 anti-Sikh riots crime scene again

A special investigation team is re-examining the scene of a crime decades after two men were allegedly murdered and their bodies set on fire in their house here during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Crucial evidence, including blood samples, has been lifted this week from a locked house in Kanpur's Govind Nagar, attacked by a mob during the anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The SIT, formed by the Yogi Adityanath government on the orders of the Supreme Court, entered the locked house with a forensic team on Tuesday, Superintendent of Police (SIT), Balendu Bhushan said.

After Delhi, Kanpur was among the worse-hit by the violence. Teja Singh (45) and his son Satpal Singh (22) were killed on November 1, 1984.

The SIT has got the statement of Teja Singh's surviving son, Charanjeet Singh -- now 61 and a resident of Delhi -- recorded before a special magistrate.

The witness narrated the horrific episode and disclosed the identities of those allegedly involved in the murders.

The surviving members of Teja Singh's family had sold off the Kanpur house and moved first to Punjab and then Delhi. A Kanpur sub-inspector filed the FIR.

SP Bhushan said the crime scene was undisturbed as the new occupants stayed on the first floor. The ground floor rooms where the murders took place remained locked.

The SIT entered the house in the presence of an eyewitness to the attack who lived in the same area.

Bhushan said the forensic science laboratory determined that the blood samples collected were of human beings, which confirmed that killings had taken place there.

Earlier this year, the SIT had collected blood samples from a house in Kanpur's Naubasta area. It too had been locked up after a similar attack.

The Uttar Pradesh SIT was formed to revisit cases filed after the 1984 riots.

The Kanpur SSP provided the SIT with a list of 40 cases of serious nature. Of them, the Kanpur Police had filed charge sheets in 11 cases and final reports in the remaining 29, which lacked substantial evidence.

But the accused were acquitted in all 11 cases with the trial court citing lack of evidence.

"We have sought permission from the state government to file an appeal against the judgment of lower courts in five cases," Bhushan said. "We are still waiting for the government nod."

The SIT also started further investigations in the 29 cases closed by Kanpur Police and hopes to file charge-sheet in some of them.