A Delhi Court on Friday ordered framing of charges for murder, provocation of intent with causing riot and other offences against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in connection with the killing of three people in north Delhi's Pul Bangash area during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Special CBI Judge Rakesh Siyal said that there was sufficient evidence against him to put him on trial.
Charges for unlawful assembly, rioting, promoting enmity between different groups, house trespass, defiling a place of worship, mischief by fire and theft, apart from murder and intent to cause a riot will be framed against Tytler formally on September 13. The Congress leader will be there to either plead "guilty" or "not guilty".
The case pertains to the killing of three Sikhs -- Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurucharan Singh -- outside the Pul Bangash gurudwara and arson in the religious place in 1984.
The incident took place after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
A witness had earlier submitted in the charge sheet that Tytler -- a former Union Minister -- came out of a white Ambassador car in front of the Gurudwara on November 1, 1984 and instigated a mob by saying "Kill the Sikhs, they have killed our mother," following which the three people were murdered.
The CBI told the court, "Tytler provoked the mob to kill Sikhs which resulted in Gurudwara Pul Bangash being set on fire by the mob and killing of three persons belonging to Sikh community."
However, the Congress leader insisted that there is a "single" piece of evidence against him.
"What have I done? If there is evidence against me I'm prepared to hang myself...It wasn't related to 1984 riots case for which they wanted my voice (sample)," he said last year after leaving CBI's forensic lab, NDTV reported.
The riots were triggered after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 after the controversial "Operation Blue Star", leading to violent attacks on the Sikh community.
Though CBI gave a clean chit to Tytler on three previous occasions, the courts subsequently asked the federal agency to further probe the matter.
The 80-year-old leader was also named in a report by the Nanavati Commission, which probe the anti-Sikh riots. In Tytler's name, Congress' opponents have accused the grand old party of shielding its accused leaders.
Notably, the Congress leader is out on bail, which was granted to him by a sessions court on bond and surety of Rs 1 lakh each.
