The CBI has filed a report on the lie-detector tests conducted on businessman Abhishek Verma, an eyewitness of the 1984 anti-sikh riots before a Delhi court and told the court that its investigations against former Congress union minister Jagdish Tytler will be completed in two months time.

The case stands adjourned till May 22. Last year, a Delhi court had asked the CBI to expedite the investigation in cases allegedly involving Tytler and file a progress report. The direction was passed after the probe agency informed the court that  it needed more time to conduct a lie detector test on Verma, a controversial arms dealer with strong links with the then ruling Congress party. The case in question pertains to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Verma had earlier alleged before the court that the forensic lab here was trying to shield Tytler, who has been given clean chit in the case, during the polygraph tests carried out earlier on him.

While Tytler, who has been given a clean-chit thrice by the CBI in the riots case, has refused to undergo the lie detector test, Verma had given conditional consent if he was provided round-the-clock security claiming threat to his life.

Tytler had denied his role in the riots, but the court had ordered further investigation despite the CBI having submitted closure reports in the case thrice in the past. The victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI’s closure reports in the case.

—India Legal Bureau