1984 anti-Sikh riots: Two more held for mass killings in Kanpur

Kanpur: A special investigation team probing the anti-Sikh riots here in 1984 arrested two more people for mass killings and setting a house ablaze, in which three people were charred to death, said a senior official on Tuesday.

The arrests were made from Ghatampur and the number of those held by the SIT so far has reached six.

The SIT was formed by the Uttar Pradesh government three years to re-investigate the cases related to the riots, which had claimed 127 lives in Kanpur. The riots followed the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

The two arrested were identified as Mobeen Shah (60) and Amar Singh, alias Bhura (61). They were produced before the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate, which remanded them into 14-day judicial custody, said Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Balendu Bhushan Singh, who is heading the SIT. Amar Singh is a history-sheeter from Ghatampur and about a dozen criminal cases are registered against him. He is also actively associated with the notorious ”Nanha gang” of the region, the DIG said. They have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 396 (dacoity with murder) and 436 (Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house), he said. Efforts are being made to arrest all absconding perpetrators at the earliest, the DIG said. The crackdown against the accused started on June 15 after the SIT held four prime accused from Ghatampur.

The SIT was constituted by the state government on May 27, 2019, on the orders of the Supreme Court and it has been probing the anti-Sikh riots for the past three years and efforts are on to nab more suspects, DIG Singh told PTI. The SIT earlier had identified 96 people as prime suspects, of which 22 have died. Complete information about 11 suspects was gathered and it helped the SIT to nab six of them so far, he said. The DIG said the arrested persons had accompanied dozens of others in a couple of buses to reach Nirala Nagar for setting the house of one Gurudyal Singh on fire in 1984. There were 12 families residing at Gurudyal’s house as tenants and during the attack, three people were burnt alive. A rioter, identified as Rajesh Gupta, was also shot dead during cross-firing, he added. ”We have been investigating 11 cases after identifying 96 prime suspects exploring facts from witnesses settled in Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. The SIT also found that 22 people have already died,” Bhushan Singh said.