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Till June, 1986 a total number of 403 FIRs were lodged with the Delhi
Police on the basis of incidents occurred during the period 31st
October, 1984 to 7th November, 1984. The Delhi Police registered 55
cases of murder, 5 cases of murder / looting, 70 cases of murder / arson
and 16 cases of murder with arson. The final figure of deaths given by
the Police on the basis of FIRs came to 1419.
The number of deaths as per the FIRs with the police
cannot be taken as a reliable indicator of the total number of deaths
during the riots. This is because, in many cases FIRs were not lodged
either because the affected families had left Delhi or were reluctant to
go to the police, or even if they did so, it is not certain that all the
statements made by them were properly recorded. The Ranganath Misra
Commission has also observed that, “such a tense panic situation
prevailed that it became difficult for the families to lodge FIR.” In
the words of the Commission:-
“It is a fact and the Commission on the basis of
satisfaction records a finding that first information reports were not
received if they implicated police or any person in authority and the
informants were required to delete such allegations from written
reports. When oral reports were recorded they were not taken down
verbatim and brief statements dropping out allegations against police or
other officials and men in position were written. Several instances have
come to the notice of the Commission on where a combined FIR has been
recorded in regard to several separate incidents.”
The Commission went on to observe that:
“During the period of riots what was of primary
importance for the victims was to run away from the scene and conceal
from notice of the rioters so as to escape certain death. In several
instances those who had not been massacred were picked up either by
police or Army personnel or through other agencies or by their own
efforts and shifted to Relief Camps where they were maintained for
sometime. Semi-normal conditions returned in different localities within
3-4 days but confidence took time to get restored and, therefore, until
the victims returned to their localities quite sometime after, in most
of the cases they did not know what exactly had happened, so as to make
a full report, nor did they know as to who exactly had died or get
assaulted.”
For the reasons, which have been graphically brought
out by the Commission, no reliance can be placed on the figures of he
deaths culled out from FIRs lodged with the police during or soon after
the riots.
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