Kanpur 1984 riot: SIT records statements of witnesses

KANPUR: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) coordination committee has been successful in finally locating the 25-page booklet, 'Sikh Virodhi Dange - Kanpur Ki Report - Doshi Kaun?' compiled by a Sikh activist having vital details of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Kanpur after the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi. The committee was also able to convince three eyewitnesses of the riots, who had migrated to other states in fear, to come and record their statements, reports Faiz Siddiqui.
“The booklet ‘Sikh Virodhi Dange — Kanpur Ki Report — Doshi Kaun?’ was compiled by a Sikh activist in the aftermath of 1984 anti-Sikh riots. We have been looking for it all these years as it contains vital details of the Sikh families or individuals murdered or looted by mob in the riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. We found it in the possession of Jammu resident Kamaljeet Singh,” Kawaljeet Singh Manu, a member of SIT coordination committee, told TOI.

“The booklet also contains the names of nearly 250 rioters and those leading and provoking the mob. We will go through each and every minute detail in the booklet and prepare a fresh report and thereafter produce it in court, besides sharing it with SIT,” he added.

“We also managed to convince three other eyewitnesses, who used to live in the city, but later migrated to Jamshedpur (Bihar), Jammu and Punjab out of fear of being targeted. On our request, they all came to Kanpur to record their statements before SIT to make the case strong against the perpetrators of crime,” he said.

Kamaljeet Singh, who brought the booklet with him, told TOI that it contains the names of his four brothers Chatrapal Singh (45), Avtar Singh (42), Kuljeet Singh (14), Ajeet Singh

(14), and nephew Harsewa Singh (2), who were butchered to death by the angry mob.

“Large crowds surrounded my house. I witnessed my innocent brothers and a nephew being butchered to death,” recalls Singh, who reached Kanpur on Sunday from Jammu and narrated his ordeal in a meeting at a gurdwara in Labour Colony.

“Police did nothing to stop the killings, while many actively participated in the massacre,” he added.

Kanpur was the worst-hit city after Delhi, recording 127 Sikhs deaths.