Trilokpuri

Trilokpuri, with neighbouring Kalyanpuri, is a resettlement colony in East Delhi. Human Rights Watch calls it one of the worst-affected neighbourhoods in Delhi, with the largest number of killings in East Delhi. Survivors' affidavits to the Misra Commission, collected by the 1984 Sikh Archive, report attacks in Blocks 2, 13, 30, 32, 33, 36 and 39.

Key moments

• 1 November 1984, about 10 a.m.: a mob sets fire to the gurdwara in Block 36. Sikhs who gather to defend the colony are told by police to go home, and attacks on their houses follow, continuing until the evening of 3 November. One account puts the mobs at five to six thousand.
• The toll: police admitted 95 dead; the archive, drawing on affidavits, says over 350 Sikhs were killed in Blocks 30 and 32 alone. The official count for all Delhi is 2,733.
• Survivors name local Congress leaders Dr Ashok and Rampal Saroj, the minister H.K.L. Bhagat and the station house officer, Tyagi, as directing the mobs. Human Rights Watch notes that Bhagat was acquitted in two cases and died in 2005.
• Women: seven rape cases were reported to J.P. Narayan Hospital, and journalist Manoj Mitta found about 30 women abducted and held for over 24 hours; no investigation followed (Human Rights Watch).
• 1998: the Supreme Court confirms the conviction of Kishori Lal but reduces his death sentence to life. In February 2012 Delhi's Lieutenant Governor, on the Sentence Review Board's advice, commutes the sentences of Kishori Lal and 14 other life convicts, each on a Rs 10,000 surety and bond.
• 28 November 2018: the Delhi High Court (Justice R.K. Gauba) upholds a 1996 trial court judgment convicting 88 men on the charges of "rioting" (the Penal Code's word), arson and breaking curfew. Reports give the number as 88 or 89. The court calls 1984 “a dark chapter in the history of independent India”. No murder charge was brought against any of the accused.
• 30 April 2019: a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi sets aside 15 of these convictions, saying there was no direct evidence and the men were not identified.

What it means today. Trilokpuri shows how mass killing ended in little punishment. Many survivors were resettled at Tilak Vihar, and Human Rights Watch calls the outcome a comprehensive failure of the justice system.