Tilak Nagar

Tilak Nagar is an area of West Delhi. Survivors' affidavits to the Misra Commission, published by the 1984 Sikh Archive, describe two things from the first days of the Delhi pogrom: killings at Chand Nagar, which the archive files under Tilak Nagar, and the beating of Sikhs held at Tilak Nagar police station. They are sworn allegations. The archive's page does not report the outcome of any prosecution.

Major N. S. Phull. In his affidavit, a retired Army major, then 64, who served 37 years and retired on 1 February 1977, says that at about 2 to 3 p.m. on 1 November 1984 he stopped a police van outside his house-cum-shop to ask for more police against a mob burning and looting shops. He says the Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) ordered his men to put him in the van, and that he was taken to Tilak Nagar police station, where eight Sikhs and one Hindu were already held. He says a sub-inspector took his licensed pistol, that he was beaten that night by several policemen and that his injuries, to the right eye, back and right hand, are entered in the Central Jail register of 3 November. He says he was released on bail on 9 November and was jointly charged with ten other detainees in FIR No. 442 of 1984, which named him as leading the looting while holding his pistol. He believes he was deliberately targeted as a respected local Sikh.

Other affidavits. Tirlochan Singh describes policemen beating Sikhs at the station and says a sub-inspector ordered a Sikh's beard burnt with a candle. Swaranjit Kaur says that on 31 October 1984 a mob of about 500 attacked her home at Chand Nagar and killed her husband Harbir Singh, who ran a motor-engine repair workshop, with Mohan Singh, Harbans Singh and Harbans Singh's son. She says the police were "silent spectators".

Key moments

• 31 October 1984: the Chand Nagar attack described by Swaranjit Kaur.
• 1 November 1984: Major Phull is taken to Tilak Nagar police station.
• 3 November 1984: his injuries are recorded at Central Jail.
• 9 November 1984: he is released on bail.

What it means today. The page records only what the three witnesses swore. Tilak Nagar's police station appears in their accounts as a place of detention and beating, including for a veteran of 37 years' service.