Sikh Massacre 'Missing' Witness Surfaces in Bay Area

Numerous commissions of enquiry have not been able to charge-sheet any of the primary accused, some of them prominent Indian politicians. A former Indian Union Minister recently resigned after a probe indicated he might have been involved in the riots but a key witness against him could not be found. Now that "untraceable" witness has surfaced. He is a truckdriver who fled to Fremont, Calif. after receiving threats.

The key witness in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in New Delhi involving former Indian Union Minister Jagdish Tytler was located in Fremont, Calif. last week, shortly after being dismissed as "untraceable" by India's Central Bureau of Investigation.

Between 2000 and 2002, the man, 41-year-old Jasbir Singh, now a truck driver in Fremont, Calif., provided several testimonies before the commission in India investigating the riots, alleging that Tytler instigated the waves of violence against Sikhs.

Tytler, who served as the Minister for the Welfare of Expatriate Indians until August 2005, resigned from the position after a probe panel said there was a strong suspicion that he organized the riots in which nearly 3,000 Sikhs were massacred. The CBI's inability to locate Singh, who has since moved to the U.S., for his testimony was viewed by the Indian press as a triumph for Tytler.

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