Brahmanand Gupta

Brahmanand Gupta, spelt Brahm Nand, Brahma Nand and Braham Nand Gupta in the records, was a Congress (I) leader in West Delhi in 1984. The Nanavati Commission calls him and Sajjan Kumar “the two Congress(I) leaders” whose part in the attacks on Sikhs in that district it examined. The sources found record accusations by witnesses, a notice from a commission and a court case he brought, not a conviction, so each claim below is attributed to the witness or body that made it.

What witnesses told the Nanavati Commission about Sultanpuri, 1 and 2 November 1984

• Jeet Kaur said that Gupta, who had a kerosene oil depot, incited the mob to loot and kill Sikhs (report, p. 111).
• Padmi Kaur said the mob that killed her husband and took her daughter away was led by Gupta, Uddal and Nathu Pradhan; Ghuddi Kaur said Omi, Nathu Pradhan and Gupta killed her husband by pouring kerosene on him (p. 112).
• Moti Singh said that on 2 November, after policemen shot his son and a grandson, Gupta brought kerosene in a bucket, poured it over their bodies and set them alight (pp. 114 to 115).
• Prem Kaur said that Nathu Pradhan, Gupta and a man named Rajesh stripped her and committed rape when she tried to reach her sons (p. 111).

What the commission did: The commission issued Section 8B notices, which it gave to people against whom it was likely to make adverse findings, to Sajjan Kumar and Brahmanand Gupta. It wrote that the evidence from the West District “disclosed” that the two Congress(I) leaders and Nathu Pradhan “had taken part in some of those incidents” (p. 168). Its recommendations for the West District, on pages 168 to 169, deal with Sajjan Kumar and several police officers and make no recommendation about Gupta.

Key moments

• 14 October 1987: the Jain-Banerjee Committee, acting on an affidavit by Anwar Kaur of Sultanpuri, asks the police to register cases at Sultanpuri police station against eight named people, among them Sajjan Kumar and Brahma Nand Gupta (Jain-Aggarwal report, as summarised by AllAboutSikhs).
• Late 1987: Gupta and others petition the Delhi High Court (C.W.P. 3337 of 1987) against the notification that appointed the committee. On 24 November 1987 the court issues an interim injunction barring the committee from recommending fresh cases, and its work “virtually came to a stand-still”.
• 4 October 1989: final judgment of Justices B. N. Kirpal and C. L. Choudhary. The Nanavati Commission records that the court quashed the notification, finding that the powers given to the committee were contrary to the Delhi Police Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure (p. 4).

What he is remembered for: for what Sikh survivors of Sultanpuri said of him, and for the petition that halted the committee that had named him. The commission, which issued him a notice, made no recommendation against him in its pages on the West District.