Maxwell Pereira

Maxwell Pereira was an additional deputy commissioner of police in the North district of Delhi in November 1984. He is remembered as a police officer who defended Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk on 1 November 1984, as the Delhi pogrom began. At nearby Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, the 1984 Sikh Archive cites Mukhtiar Singh's account that police were present but "showed no interest in intervening".

What happened at Sis Ganj. The account below is largely his own, as given to The Better India and in Sanjay Suri's book 1984: The Anti-Sikh Violence and After. On the night of 31 October he guarded Sikhs in North Delhi and escorted community members home. On 1 November he was called to Teen Murti Bhavan to oversee security for the new Prime Minister. After hearing of a fire at Bhagirath Place around 9 to 9.30 am he left in his jeep with six or seven men armed only with short batons, joined a local police post and marched with 10 to 12 personnel towards the crowd. He then moved to the gurdwara as a mob approached, assured the Sikhs inside that he would take responsibility for their protection, and took over the Fountain Chowk police post opposite it. His force was about 25 personnel with no armed backup. He says his men gave warnings, put up mob-control banners and used tear gas, and that when the crowd kept advancing and burning Sikh shops he ordered firing. Head Constable Satish Chandra fired his revolver and one person died.

The silence. He says he told the police control room repeatedly that he had opened fire and killed a man, and got no reply. In Suri's book he calls it a "pin-drop silence", and India TV and Gulf News report that he was shaken. The 1984 Sikh Archive says his stand calmed the crowd and that hundreds of people may have been saved.

His views. In an interview quoted by The Better India he said he felt duty-bound to open fire to save a victim, even at the cost of the attacker's life. He argues that police need no orders from above to act when required, and that an officer who hesitates may be guilty of dereliction of duty. He has also written that officers in the North district who saved Sikh lives received no recognition or reward, while colleagues elsewhere who killed Sikhs received gallantry medals; that is his claim and the sources opened do not test it.

Key moments

• 31 October 1984: guards Sikhs in North Delhi.
• 1 November 1984: leads about 25 men at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib and orders firing.
• 2015: his account appears in Sanjay Suri's book.

What he is remembered for. He is remembered as one of the few Delhi Police officers who acted to protect Sikhs in 1984, and his account of the silence from his superiors is cited in the record of police failure.