By IANS,
New Delhi : Sattu Singh, father of Jasbir Singh, a US-based witness in a case of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence involving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, Wednesday requested a court here for a speedy trial while the CBI informed the court it had recorded the statement of another witness.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted its sealed report in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Sanjeev Jain, stating that it cannot disclose the identity of the witness as it could land him in danger.
Sattu Singh, meanwhile, said: “The way this trial is going on, it will take the lives of all the other witnesses who are alive and ready to depose before the court.”
However, CBI counsel informed the court that Jasbir Singh’s petition in the Delhi High Court was pending and he was adamant on recording his statement only via video-conferencing and the next date of hearing in the high court was Jan 21, 2009.
The court then fixed Jan 22, 2009 as next date of hearing.
In the last hearing, the court pulled up the CBI for its failure to file a status report in the case.
“I have not asked you to file a charge sheet but a status report in the case. It was your duty to file the report,” the judge had then said.
The CBI on Sep 29 recommended that Tytler not be prosecuted for involvement in the anti-Sikh riots and the case against co-accused Kishan Sharma be closed as no evidence could be found against him.
However, in December, Jasbir Singh, who now lives in California, told Indian media that he had seen Tytler inciting a murderous mob during the riots that followed the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
He accused the CBI of not doing a thorough probe and not taking his statement.