1984 Delhi Sikh Genocide - Affidavits

Affidavit submitted before the Misra Commission

I, B. Joseph Maliakan S/o Mr. M.K. Joseph, aged 37 yrs., R/o 12, Air Force School, Bal Bharti, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-3, do hereby solemnly affirm and state as under: -

1. That I was a Staff Correspondent with the 'Indian Express' newspaper based in New Delhi at the time of the November 1984 riots and A.M. still working as such.

2. On 31st evening outside the AIIMS, when riots broke out I met Additional Commissioner of Police, Gautam Kaul, standing with a lage number of policemen. The police did nothing to control the rioting. Asked what the police was doing, Gautam Kaul replied that he could do nothing.

3. On 2nd November'84, around 11:30 A.M., I learnt from Mr. Mohan Singh, an auto rickshaw driver and then a resident of Block-32, Trilokpuri that Sikhs in Trilokpuri were being massacred. The massacre began on November 1st afternoon. Mohan Singh said, he had shaved his beard and cut his hair and escaped from the murderous mobs on November 1st night. He had sought shelter in the Indian Express canteen. "If you do not do something immediately all the male-Sikhs in Trilokpuri would be killed." Mohan Singh pleaded with us and broke down.

4. Soon after, I, alongwith Rahul Bedi, Staff Correspondent, Indian Express and Mr. Alok Tomar of 'Jansatta' immediately left for Trilokpuri. Driving through around 2 P.M. and found that the main entrance to the colony was blocked by concrete pipes, freshly felled trees and bricks. Men armed with lathis stood guard at the entrance.

5. Around 250 yards away from Block 32, we were stopped by a mob who told us that Block 32 was in the opposite direction. At the same time we also saw two policemen talking to a mob at Block 32. As soon as the policemen saw our vehicle they mounted a motorcycle and we aksed them whether killings had taken place in Block 32. The policemen riding the motorcycle said that peace prevailed in Trilokpuri. On further questioning, he said that two people were killed in Block 32 and their bodies had been taken to hospital. Saying this, they sped away.

6. As soon as the two policemen left, a mob to whom the policemen were seen talking a little while ago advanced towards us and started stoning our vehicle. I got out of the vehicle to pacify the mob when a self-styled leader among them told us to leave the place as Block 32 was out of bounds. He warned us of the consequences, if we did not comply.

7. Fearing for our lives, we retreated from Trilokpuri and went straight to the Kalyanpuri Police Station. We informed the duty officer about the situation in Trilokpuri. He (duty officer) at Kalyanpuri P.S. insisted that there was peace in Trilokpuri. A police petrol had confirmed this minutes ago, he maintained.

8. As we were leaving the police station we noticed a truck parked outside the police station attracting flies. On inspection, we found that it contained three charred bodies of Sikhs with an injured Sikh youth atop. The injured man told me that he was from Punjab and had come to Trilokpuri to visit relations. He further told me that in the early hours of November 2nd, a mob had killed his hosts and set him on fire after pouring kerosene oil on him. He but escaped somehow was picked up in injured condition and dumped with the corpses in the truck, the man said. Then we pointed out the bodies inside the truck to the duty officer, he said that only the Station House Officer, Soor Veer Singh will talk about it.

9. Hoping to get no help from the Kalyanpuri P.S., we drove to the Shakarpur P.S. where policemen on duty expressed their inability to do anything because Trilokpuri was not in their jurisdiction.

10. Coming out of the Shakarpur P.S., we saw an army patrol for the first time in East Delhi. We stopped the patrol commanded by Col. P.P.S. Bains and requested him to send help to Trilokpuri. Col. Bains told us that he was observing the area and for immediate help we should get in touch with a major deputed in the area. When we contacted the major, he said that he and his men had just driven in from Saharanpur. The army, he said can not act on its own until it got orders from the civil administration.

11. Around 4 P.M., we made a second visit to Trilokpuri. This time armed mobs turned us away right at the main entrance to the colony.

12. As we drove back to get some help at the ITO bridge, we came across an Air Force contingent led by a squadron leader. Approached for help, the Air Force officer said that his mission was to clear the road for the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was to visit East Delhi in an hour. He directed us to an army Captain on the ITO flyover.

13. The army Captain at the flyover expressed his helplessness, saying he had lost his formation somewhere in Model Town. He suggested us to go to the Police Headquarters.

14. It was around 5 P.M., we reached the Police Headquarters. At the office of the Police Commissioner, Mr. Subhash Tandon, we met Mr. Nikhil Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police manning a special control room. We explained to him the terrible situation seen by us in Trilokpuri.

15. Mr. Nikhil Kumar, who, while wondering whether we press fellows' were not exaggerating said that he was a guest artist and merely informed the central control room, Mr. Johari, a Senior IAS officer, Mr. F.L.R. Siama, DCP and Mr. N.S. Rana, DCP were among those present in the Commissioner's room, when we sought help.

16. Around 6 P.M., we returned to Trilokpuri, we then saw a police van arriving. Three policemen, the Station House Officer of Kalyanpuri Police Station, Soor Veer Singh and two constables emerged from the van when we reached Block 32.

17. As we surveyed the area littered with hundreds of burning Sikh bodies, the Station House Officer said that the killings had taken place on November 1st and he had already informed senior officers about the massacre.

18. On seeing us, frightened women and children who were hiding behind charred bodies, remains emerged from Block 32 and 30. Indro Kaur, who had witnessed the massacre, directed us to a few houses where there were survivors.

19. As we prepared to leave, the women and children pleaded with us to stay, otherwise, they said there would be another massacre. While Rahul and Alok Tomar left, I stayed on.

20. Soon, more and more women and a few men who were bleeding emerged from neighbouring Hindu and Muslim homes.

21. I suggested to Police Inspector Soor Veer Singh to evacuate the survivors in the lone dilapidated van available with him.

22. Meanwhile crowd started gathering across the road. They started shouting as if in preparation for another attack. At this the two policemen asked the survivors to move to the lanes littered with burning bodies so that the crowds at a distance did not notice them.

23. The lone van must have made two trips with the survivors, Sewa Dass, Deputy Commissioner of Police, East District arrived. He wanted to know what had happened. When I told him that hundreds of Sikhs had been massacred in his area, Sewa Dass said he had no knowledge of the killings. It was only after I suggested to him that he directed his men to reach the badly injured Sikhs to a hospital. There is no trace till today of a few young Sikh youth including one Gian Singh, whom the police carried in the jeep from Trilokpuri that night.

24. After the jeep left with the injured, Mr. Hukam Chand Jatav, Additional Commissioner of Police, Delhi Range arrived. Like his deputy Sewa Dass earlier, he too wanted to know what had happened in Trilokpuri. I suggested to him, if he could, walk down the lane littered with burning bodies. After taking a few paces, Jatav turned back.

25. Jatav called for reinforcements and after all the survivors of Block 32 were evacuated, ordered the arrest of Soor Veer Singh, the duty officer of Kalyanpuri P.S. and the rider whom we met in the afternoon.

26. Around 8:30 P.M., a police officer (Dubey) of the rank of DIG came and said he had come from the Prime Minister's house to enquire about the Trilokpuri massacre. Standing about a 100 yards away from Block 32, he asked me what had happened and if it was safe to go into the block. I told him dead people could do no harm. The officer left without visiting the block. I have later come to know that Dubey was a DIG in the I.B.

27. In a mopping up operation ordered by Jatav, about 100 people were arrested. I left Trilokpuri as the mopping up operation was in progress.

28. Though more than 350 Sikhs were killed in Block 32 and 30, the police officially on November 5 admitted only 95 deaths. The police also said that all the killings in Trilokpuri took place on November 1.

29. On November 2 afternoon when we first tried to reach Block 32, we noticed no fire or smoke in Block 32. However, when we reached the Block at 6 P.M., after having informed the police earlier, the same day many tenements were on fire and most of the bodies were also burning.

30. On November 3, morning, I alongwith Rahul Bedi returned to Trilokpuri to find two bodies burning at the main entrance to the colony. Inside we found the remaining Sikhs and their families in the sprawling resettlement colony had been thrown on to the streets. Many of them were critically injured.

31. On November 3, after spending about 10 minutes, when we left the colony we found that two more bodies had been added to where two had been burnt earlier. Mr. Sewa Dass and the DIG from the Prime Minister's office who had just arrived were seen talking to a wailing Sikh woman and her children. We saw a token army patrol pass by..

Back to Affidavits list

Guide To Discover Sikhism |   Guide To Becoming A Pure Sikh|   Guide To Carrying Out Nitnem