New Delhi:  In a major setback for Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, a local court here on Wednesday ordered the reopening of a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against him.

The Congress leader is accused of instigating a mob that led to the murder of three men who had taken shelter at a gurudwara in the capital on November 1, 1984.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in 2007 and in 2009 claiming there was no evidence against him. This was challenged by Lakhwinder Singh, the widow of one of the men killed. Challenging the closure report filed by the CBI in 2009, Singh had argued that the investigating agency had not recorded the testimonies of two key eyewitnesses who have moved to the United States since the riots.

During the arguments on April 4, the CBI prosecutor had sought the dismissal of the plea filed by the victim saying the probe has made it clear that Tytler was not present on November 1, 1984 at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed during the riots.

The prosecutor said at the time of the incident, Tytler was at Teen Murti Bhawan, the residence of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Tytler’s alleged role in the case relating to killing of three persons in the 1984 riots – Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh – near the Gurudwara Pulbangash was re-investigated by the CBI after a court had in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report.