NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Thursday asked Uttar Pradesh government to engage forensic experts to reconstruct a 40-year-old illegible FIR in a Kanpur anti-Sikh riot case and asked the state legal services authority to provide leading criminal lawyers to complainants and victims’ kin to oppose closure reports in nine such cases. It said professional fees of these lawyers would be borne by state government.
The details of the FIR, provided by Uttar Pradesh government standing counsel Ruchira Goel to a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, revealed that on Nov 1, 1984, a day after assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi, around 150-200 persons barged into the house of retired armed forces personnel Diwan Singh in Naubasta, Kanpur, murdered him and looted his house.
SC asked the Uttar Pradesh counsel to take help of forensic experts from reputed institutions like CFSL or similar private institutions to reconstruct the FIR so that even though 40 years have gone by, attempts should be made to bring the culprits to book. SIT has filed chargesheet in 11 other cases.
This FIR is part of the nine FIRs, which were investigated by the SIT after a lapse of 35 years and closed due to lack of evidence.
