A Delhi court on Friday ordered framing of charges against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in a case related to the killing of three persons outside a gurdwara during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, The Hindu reported.

Special judge Rakesh Siyal of the Rouse Avenue Courts said that there was sufficient evidence against Tytler, 80, to put him on trial for murder, abetment of murder, rioting and promoting enmity between groups based on religion.

The matter was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. While the central agency had previously cleared Tytler, the case was reopened in 2015 following a court order.

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In its chargesheet, the central agency accused Tytler of instigating the mob near Delhi’s Pul Bangash gurdwara on November 1, 1984. Three persons – Sardar Thakur Singh, Badal Singh and Gurcharan Singh – were burned to death in the incident.

Large-scale riots had broken out in Delhi on October 31, 1984, following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, who was the prime minister at the time, by her Sikh bodyguards. Mobs, allegedly helped by some Congress leaders, had attacked Sikhs and torched their homes. Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone.

The Central Bureau of Investigation’s chargesheet, filed in May 2023, quoted witness statements as saying that the Congress leader boasted about having “killed 100 Sikhs” and complained that “only nominal killing of Sikhs” took place in his constituency as compared to other parts of the city.

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The central agency said that as per witness statements, Tytler approached the gurdwara in his white Ambassador car, and provoked the mob to attack it and then engage in looting.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had contended that there was enough evidence on record to show that Tytler was part of an unlawful assembly that provoked the mob.

Tytler served as the Union minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government between 1991 and 1996 and Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet between 2004 and 2005.