Anti-Sikh riots: Delhi BJP asks police to lodge FIR against Sam Pitroda

Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi unit on Friday asked the police to file an FIR against Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda following the latter's comments on the anti-Sikh riots that took place in 1984.

Pitroda, when asked about BJP's claim that instructions to "kill" in 1984 had come from late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, had said, "It (riots) happened in 1984, so what?"

In connection with this, the spokesperson of BJP's Delhi unit Tajinder Bagga, through his lawyer Advocate Alakh Alok Ranjan, filed a complaint against Pitroda.

"That the Complainant abovenamed Mr. Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, being a Sikh himself, is deeply and personally aggrieved by the aforesaid deliberate and malicious acts committed by the above named accused person, and thus the Complainant is requesting your good self to immediately register a First Information Report (FIR) against the above named accused person, namely Sam Pitroda, Us 295-A, 153-A, 153, 504 and 505 IPC, amongst others," the letter read.

"No one in this country has forgotten the large scale massacre and brutal killing of thousands of the innocent people belonging to Sikh Community, in and around Delhi, in the year 1984, which happened in the aftermath of the killing of former Congress leader and former PM Mrs Indira Gandhi. The recent convictions of many senior Congress leaders in the said 1984 Sikh massacre, categorically indicate that the said inhuman, barbaric and heinous crime was committed by and on behalf of the leaders belonging to Congress Party. The grave injustice done to the people belonging to Sikh Community in 1984, can neither be forgiven nor forgotten," it read.

Bagga, in the letter, also claimed that Pitroda's statement was made "solely for the purpose of insulting and outraging religious feelings of the people belonging to the Sikh community to promote disharmony, enmity, hatred and ill-will between different religious groups, to provoke breach of peace by giving provocation and to severally insult the religious beliefs of Sikhs."

Meanwhile, scores of BJP supporters staged a protest outside the residence of Congress president Rahul Gandhi here against Pitroda's remark.

On Thursday, BJP, citing the Nanavati Commission report, had said "instructions to kill" came directly from then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's office.

"It's on record of Nanavati Commission that probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the biggest genocide of India in which the government killed its own citizens, that instructions to kill came directly from the then PM Rajiv Gandhi's office. The country awaits justice for this karma," the party had tweeted from its official handle.

In response to this, Pitroda, while rubbishing the allegations, had said, "I don't think so, this is also another lie, and what about 1984? You speak about what you have done in five years. It happened in 1984, so what? (1984 hua toh hua). What have you done? (Ab kya hai '84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. '84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya?)"

"You were voted to create jobs. You were voted to create 200 smart cities. You have not even done that. You have not done anything that is why you keep talking here and there," he added

-ANI