Sewa Dass

Sewa Dass was the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in overall charge of the East District of Delhi in November 1984. The district included Trilokpuri, where Sikhs were killed from 1 to 3 November in one of the worst massacres of the Tesra Ghallughara.

What the record shows, in order

• 1 to 2 November 1984. The Kusum Lata Mittal Committee, a second inquiry into police conduct whose report is dated 1990, indicted 72 police officials. In its account of East District it quoted wireless messages to show that Dass was repeatedly warned about the violence at Trilokpuri from the afternoon of 1 November. Dass said, in line with the government's stand before the Misra Commission, that he did not know of the massacre until 2 November.
• The committee's verdict. The 1984 Sikh Archive reports that the committee called him a slur on the police and held him responsible, with the Kalyanpuri SHO Shoorveer Singh Tyagi, for the killings at Trilokpuri, citing the disarming of gathered Sikhs and the failure to stop the mobs.
• Departmental inquiry. The Tribune reported in August 2005 that the inquiry against him was held up until 1998 by a stay from the Central Administrative Tribunal, and that he was exonerated in it.
• Nanavati Commission. The commission recorded the allegation of many witnesses that Dass and his subordinates in East Delhi had encouraged the mobs. Ensaaf notes that it nonetheless recommended no action against him, and the Tribune reports that it advised the government to exonerate him because nothing substantive was found.
• Later career. By 2005 he had become Special Commissioner of Delhi Police, the second-ranking post in the force.

The Mittal Committee's findings, the departmental exoneration and the Nanavati Commission's recommendation all stand on the record side by side, and the 1984 Sikh Archive notes that he was promoted despite the committee's verdict.