1984 Delhi Sikh Genocide - Affidavits

Affidavit submitted before the Misra Commission

I, Narinder Singh Bawa s/o S. Kartar Singh Bawa, aged about 42 yrs., r/o 4154, Arya Pura, Subzi Mandi, Delhi-7, do hereby solemnly affirm and declare on oath as under: -

1. That I am a University Teacher teaching in Law Contra-II, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, and an Advocate by profession.

2. That my father is a prominent Congress (I) leader of the area. He is freedom fighter and gets pension from the Govt.

3. That on October 31st, 1984, at about midnight at I heard a loud noise of hammers and chisels breaking open the shops in Indra Market, Subzi Mandi, Delhi, which is just infront of my aforesaid house. I alongwith other members of my family including my father and some neighbours came out houses. We saw many persons looting the goods from the shops. On seeing us the culprits tried to run away and we somehow managed to apprehend 5-6 of them alongwith the looted property which they had tried t get away with.

4. That at the same time a senior police officer H.C. Jatav, the then Addl. Commissioner of Police, Delhi, alongwith about 6-7 armed cops came to that place. We narrated the whole incident to him and handed over the apprehended culprits for appropriate action. We also requested him to depute at least one or two armed cops these and we all, Sikhs and Non-Sikhs would help them to maintain law and order. But H.C. Jatav did not pay any heed to our request and instead let off the apprehended persons. These looters then ran off from that place alongwith the looted property.

5. That on November 1, 1984, and November 2, 1984, I remained confined in the house of a neighbour. From there I made innumerable calls to the P.S. Subzi Mandi and No.100 for help but nobody came.

6. That on November 1, 1984, a group of armed persons came to our street and looted and burnt two shops belonging to my younger brother. S. Hardeep Singh Bawa and S. Jagdeep Singh Bawa situated in front of our house. The mob was led by local Congress (I) workers who are well known to my father who himself had been a Congress (I) leader.

7. That ultimately on November 3, 1984, I came to P.S. Subzi Mandi, which by that time had become a refugee camp for the riot-hit victims.

8. At the P.S. I used to listen to the grievance of of the riot-hit people and also prepare their cases for submission to the Police Station. I requested the then Duty Officer at the Police Station to lodge separate FIR's for different victims as they name different people who led the illegal assembly and who actively participated in looting, burning, killing etc. But he did not pay any attention to my request and asked me to prepare a list of goods looted, plundered etc. and submit it in duplicate to the Police Station. Later on he returned one acknowledged copy of the list of inventory of the goods destroyed by individual complaint and conveniently mentioned all complaints as pertaining to FIR No.633/84, as if every complaint was a part of same FIR.

9. That ten persons had been killed by the local had characters of the same area. The windows and other relatives of the killed male Sikhs revealed to me that the killers were well known to me and that the killings (burnt to death) were done in the presence of the police officer of this very P.S. Subzi Mandi. I approached the police officer to lodge the FIR and apprehended culprits but till November 9, when I left the camp, not even the FIR was lodged. These aggrieved relatives also met V.P. Marwaha then Addl. Commissioner (Vigilance) but no action was taken.

10. That so many affected persons were came to the P.S. and told the SHO Malik and ACP Chowdhary Raghvir Singh that their looted property is still lying in the hoses of looters who were residing in jhuggies nearby and that police party be sent to recover the goods. But both the said officer did not taken any action whatsoever. Whatever property was recovered was due to the efforts of one Barar Inspector Police who had warned the people generally to abandon the looted goods, voluntarily at the roadside otherwise strict action would be taken. The goods abandoned by these people were brought to P.S. No 'recovery' whatsoever as such had been affected. The SHO and ACP aforesaid were hookworm to the request of the aggrieved persons. I also saw one Sub-Inspector taking away and appropriating to himself one looted transistor radio among the abandoned goods brought to the Police Station.

11. That all the riot hit victims requested the senior police officers who visited the Police Station to retain L.S. Barar (a Non-Sikh), Inspector as stated in para (10) above who only can get the looted property recovered. But despite assurance from them, Barar was transferred to other place. When I enquired from the police officer as to why has been transferred, I was told that the transfer was because of order from "above."

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