Author: Rakesh Ranjan
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 4, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/321626/Chillar-tears-lost-to-wind-as-cops-'lose'-FIR.html
It is the sorry tale of 30-odd victims of
the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, craving justice but being denied. Successive
Haryana Governments made a brazen attempt to hush up the mass killing in a
hamlet, Chillar, on the outskirts of Rewari in Haryana, following assassination
of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The FIR registered in this connection, according
to police claims, has been lost and none of the perpetrators have been identified
to date. The Pioneer, however, managed to lay its hands on a copy of the FIR,
available with the survivors.
The police's reluctance in investigating the
matter is evident from the fact that they did not even bother to record the
statement of the eyewitness who had lodged the FIR. This was obviously done
under the influence of the Government of the day, as perpetrators of the crime
belonged to the then ruling Congress. "They were raising slogans to avenge
the assassination of Indira Gandhi," says Dhanpat Singh, a survivor.
As old-timers point out, police inaction not
only allowed the killers to go scot free but also left the panic-stricken
and vulnerable survivors to their fate.
"The sole FIR registered is lost. No
attempt was ever made to trace survivors and eyewitnesses - including then
village head Dhanpat Singh, who was witness to the mass killing, and the complainant,"
said Joginder Singh Makkar, who was lucky to escape with his family. Makkar
was 20 years old then. An advocate now, Makkar has been making attempts to
bring the guilty to book.
The FIR was registered at Jatusana police
station against unknown persons on November 3, 1984 - a day after the massacre,
which had been reported to the police immediately. However, the current SHO
of Jatusana, Rajesh Kumar, shrugs off the matter, saying, "The FIR is
lost. The territorial jurisdiction of the spot of crime has also changed.
The case can be reinvestigated on direction of the higher authorities."
Makkar, on the other hand, wants the Chillar
massacre to be probed by the CBI, like the anti-Sikh riots of Delhi. The Delhi
cases were reopened after a journalist threw a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram,
following a clean chit to high-profile accused Jagdish Tytler.
Deceived by destiny and neglected by the State,
Chillar victims have come forward for the first time to reveal the gory details.
Time has failed to heal the wounds of 84-year-old Swaroop Singh, who lost
his brother and 12 other members of his family. Tears roll down his eyes as
he narrates the ordeal.
This settlement of nearly 16 Sikh families,
who had migrated from Pakistan at the time of the Partition, came under attack
around 11 am. The frenzied mob - consisting of nearly 300 persons - went on
killing spree till 6 pm. The hapless Sikhs had assembled in three houses,
two of which were set ablaze, killing 31 persons.
"Armed with iron rods and cans of kerosene,
attackers made a hole in the roof and poured kerosene through it, setting
the houses afire. When one Balwant Singh retaliated, killing one of the attackers
with his sword, mobsters fled the spot," recalls Swaroop Singh.
He adds, "As the whole village had been
torched, the family - along with women and children of the neighbouring houses
- decided to leave Chillar. They took shelter with a Hindu family in the adjacent
village of Dhanora, from where they were ferried to Rewari by one Chandrabhan
Singh late in the night."
A few of the men managed to escape the massacre
as it was harvesting time and they were camping in the fields. On hearing
news, they left for different destinations to seek help. The matter was reported
to police but no help came.
Chandrabhan Singh recalls, "On the scary
night of November 2, I rescued 30-odd members of the Sikh community to Rewari
in a tractor trolley. There was no police protection to the victims despite
the then Superintendent of Police visiting the village in the evening…
Twenty-six years have gone but none of the victims have dared to revisit their
abandoned properties in the village. "Meanwhile, the victims feel raising
the issue in Parliament is the only ray of hope.
"It is an unfortunate incident, where
the entire village was set ablaze. It is a blot on the secular fabric of the
country and the duty of our Parliamentarians to set an example by re-establishing
this village," said Makkar.
