1984
Evidence From 1984 Haryana Massacres Stolen From Investigators
HINDUSTAN TIMES
Two “unidentified” persons stole some pictures and documents related to the anti-Sikh massacres that took place in Hondh Chillar, Pataudi and Gurgaon in Haryana in 1984.
The burglary took place at the private office of Manwinder Singh Giaspura, a member of the committee that had been set up to inquire into the massacres.
In his complaint to Focal Point police station, Manwinder Singh declared that two unidentified persons alighted from a car bearing a Haryana registration number and broke open the locks of his office at Baba Gajja Jain Colony in Moti Nagar.
The accused then decamped with important documents and pictures related with the massacres.
During the anti-Sikh pogroms in 1984, 32 Sikhs were killed in Hondh Chillar in Hissar, 17 in Pataudi and 47 in Gurgaon in Haryana.
Manwinder Singh had exposed the hitherto hidden story in 2011.
Thereafter, members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the ministers from Punjab and Haryana governments had visited the sites of the massacres and ordered the investigation. The case has been sub-judice.
The complainant, a yarn trader, said he used his business office in Moti Nagar to hold meetings of the coordination committee and also kept all records of the matter in the office.
Manwinder further said, "The office landlord informed me about the broken locks on June 12. I reached the office and found that the documents and pictures related to the case were missing."
"The accused did not touch anything else lying in the office. I fear that someone wants to hamper the investigation and therefore stole the documents. Later, I came to know that the accused had come in a car bearing a Haryana number, and fled in the same car after executing the burglary," he said.
"Though I informed the police on June 12 itself, but the police did not register the case until June 15," he reported.
The station house officer at the Focal Point police station confirmed that a case under sections 380 (theft) and 454 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking in order to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code had been registered. He said a manhunt had been launched to identify and arrest the accused.
This is the second such incident.
On March 4, 2011, “unidentified” miscreants had struck at Manwinder Singh’s house in the Giaspura area and absconded with some of the records relating to the massacre.
More than 2 years later, that case too remains unsolved to date.
[Edited for sikhchic.com]
June 18, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Inni Kaur (Fairfield, Connecticut, USA), June 18, 2013, 10:35 AM.
Why should we be surprised?
2: Sunny (London, England), June 18, 2013, 4:41 PM.
'Why should we be surprised'... well, we shouldn't be surprised but at the same time, could Manwinder not have been guided by someone to keep the evidence in a more secure environment? So the question then is, are we surprised such crucial evidence was so easy to steal and run off with!
3: Karamjeet Singh (Chicago, Illinois, USA), June 20, 2013, 8:03 AM.
Manwinder's contribution for unearthing such a ghastly massacre of the Sikhs is immense. He is an Engineer, I am pretty sure. He must have shared the record with others perusing the case. All such records have to be securely kept in lockers, not in offices. There is someone higher up trying to destroy all the evidence pertaining to the 1984 pogroms. We need to hound that party down.