NEW DELHI, AUG 17: Defence Minister George Fernandes today said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) still had in its possession some of the documents and letters seized by the Army from the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar.The material with the CBI includes a copy of the May 1984 issue of magazine Sant Sipahi, a file containing various letters (49 sheets), a 1983 diary of Balwinder Singh Khojkipur, the annual report of the All India Sikh Students' Federation (dated 20 September, 1983) and an arms licence of one Chanan Singh of Amritsar.In a written reply to a question by G.S. Tohra and S. Slibra in the Rajya Sabha, Fernandes said that while the CBI had destroyed 117 items of seditious material, some books and paintings handed over to the agency by the Army were returned to the representatives of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), in accordance with the list prepared by the Sikh religious body. The seditious material was destroyed only after obtaining necessary court orders, he said.The Defence Minister also said that nine other seized items had been submitted to courts along with chargesheets as a few of them related to pending cases against Akali Dal (Mann) leader Simranjit Singh Mann and separatist leader Jagjit Singh Chauhan, now living in exile in London.Fernandes further said that 1,850 Iranian Rials, also seized from the temple premises, were handed over to the CBI museum, while nine torn one rupee notes were deposited with the RBI.
