Can’t decipher FIR, 1984 murder unsolved | India News

NEW DELHI: An Army man’s murder by an anti-Sikh riots mob at Kanpur on Nov 1, 1984, will remain unsolved as the time-tattered and disfigured FIR remains illegible as even the Central Forensic Science laboratory could neither decipher names of the accused nor the narration of the incident except that it was lodged under Sec 302 of IPC.Sketchy details of the FIR, provided by UP govt standing counsel Ruchira Goel to a bench led by Justices Surya Kant in January this year had revealed that on Nov 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi, around 150-200 persons barged into the house of retired Army personnel Diwan Singh at Yashoda Nagar in Naubasta, Kanpur, murdered him and looted his house.The bench had ordered the state to take assistance of CFSL in reconstructing the FIR to attempt bring to book the culprits who unleashed a massacre virtually backed by the then governing political party. However, the counsel informed a bench of Justices Kant and Joymalya Bagchi that the FIR remains illegible despite the best efforts of CFSL.Unwilling to give up the pursuit of delivering justice, the bench asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT) it had constituted to re-investigate anti-Sikh riot cases and UP police to keep the case open and pursue it further whenever they get hold of additional information relating to Diwan Singh’s cold-blooded murder.For PIL petitioner Manjit Singh GK, advocate Jagjit Singh Chhabra told the bench though chargesheets were filed by SIT in nine anti-Sikh riots cases in Kanpur, HC has stayed trial in three cases on appeals filed by the accused seeking quashing of the final probe reports.The SC bench said, “While we do not want to impact the rights of the accused, including their right to seek quashing of chargesheet, we would request HC to take up these appeals out of turn for expeditious adjudication.”