[publication.samachar.com]

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Wednesday got some more time from a city court to file its report in an anti-Sikh riots case allegedly involving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler as key witness Jasbir Singh's petition to record his testimony in the US is pending before the Delhi High Court.

Taking into account the High Court's notice to CBI over Singh's petition seeking to record his version through video-conferencing from America, the court asked the agency to file its report under Section 173 CrPC (investigation report) on March 12.

The court had on December 18 ordered CBI to reinvestigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, rejecting its closure report, after the witness surfaced in the United States and expressed his willingness to record his statement against Tytler.

The CBI had on September 29 sought to close the case against former Union Minister Tytler, declaring Singh, presently settled in California, as untraced.

The CBI, which was to file status report on Wednesday, submitted before the court that since the High Court had issued notice to it for February 27 on Singh's petition, the matter should be put off to a later date.

Singh had on January 11 filed a petition before the High Court seeking to quash a notice issued to him under Section 160 of the CrPC, which empowers the probe agency to seek presence of a witness.

He had sought direction to CBI to record his statement under Section 166 A (1) CrPC that entitles a non-resident Indian to testify in a foreign court at the request of the investigating agency.

The CBI, however, had argued that it was difficult for it record Singh's statement through video conferencing as his credentials were yet to be established.

In the arguments before the High Court, the CBI had also assured that it would not file any report, seeking closure of the case till the decision on Singh's petition.

The witness, in his affidavit before Nanavati Commission on August 31, 2000, had stated that he had overheard Tytler rebuking his men for nominal killing of Sikhs in his constituency on November 3, 1984.

The case relates to an incident on November 1, 1984 when a mob had set afire Gurudwara Pulbangash in Central Delhi, killing three persons in the riots following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.