Delhi Police 1984

The Delhi Police was the force responsible for order in Delhi when Sikhs were killed in the city after Indira Gandhi's assassination in November 1984. The Nanavati Commission records that Delhi then had 63 police stations in six police districts, each called a range under a DIG, that S. C. Tandon was Commissioner of Police, and that the Lt Governor, P. G. Gavai, was responsible for law and order. Delhi had 393,921 Sikhs in the 1981 census, 6.33 per cent of its people.

What the inquiries found

• Misra Commission (report of August 1986): in the Nanavati report's summary, the Commission found the police indifferent or negligent in their duties and at times conniving at or taking part in the attacks.
• Kapur-Mittal Committee (Kusum Lata Mittal's report, February 1990): the Commissioner's intelligence system gave him no warning; police told looters to leave stolen goods outside police stations, which Mittal said amounted to a general amnesty; police played down the number killed and quietly collected and disposed of bodies the mobs had not fully burned; "shoot at sight" orders were ignored; and some senior officers manipulated their wireless logbooks. Additional Commissioner Gautam Kaul told his staff to register as many cases as possible, while Additional Commissioner H. C. Jatav gave the opposite orders.
• Jain-Aggarwal Committee (from December 1990): in the Nanavati report's summary, general omnibus FIRs covering many incidents and casual investigation left most cases ending in acquittal.
• Nanavati Commission (2005): there was enough evidence that police in several South Delhi areas stayed passive or helped the mobs, and that police in Delhi Cantonment, Srinivaspuri and Nizamuddin made Sikhs defending themselves go home and took away their kirpans. A gurdwara secretary at Naraina Vihar said the police told him "right thing is happening, wait you also be burnt". The Commission held Tandon responsible for a colossal failure and said Gavai could not escape responsibility. It agreed with the earlier findings and, because action had already been taken, recommended no further action against the officers.

What was done to the police: Mittal named 72 officers and the Jain-Aggarwal Committee 90. The Nanavati report gives 147 as the total indicted by the two committees, although 72 and 90 add up to 162 and the report does not say why the totals differ; of the 147, it says, 42 could not be proceeded against because they had died or retired. Of the 72, the Nanavati report says 13 had retired and 3 had died before action began, 12 were exonerated, the Central Administrative Tribunal quashed one inquiry, one officer's pension was reduced and three cases were pending. Jatav lost 30 per cent of his pension for five years, the final order against DCP Chander Prakash could not be served because of a restraint order of the Delhi High Court, and the inquiry against DCP Sewa Dass was delayed to 1998 by a stay from the Tribunal. Of 39 non-gazetted officers, 35 faced inquiries: 32 were exonerated, 2 censured and 1 warned. The Delhi government instituted 25 criminal cases against some of the 72 officers.