The agency told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit that it required more time to complete the formalities with respect to the documents collected during the investigation.

“The investigating officer needs more time to finalise the documentary formalities and complete the probe,” contended the CBI counsel, who had on January 22 assured the court that a final report would be submitted on the next date of hearing, February 28.

When asked about examining witnesses and other documents related to the case, the counsel informed the judge that as many as 11 witnesses have been examined. “Nine documents and two CDs have also been examined as evidence,” he said. The counsel also submitted the fifth status report in the court in a sealed envelope.

Senior counsel for the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) H S Phoolka, on the other hand, pointed to the inordinate delay in completing the probe. “The CBI must file the final report within stipulated time,” he said.

After a brief hearing, ACMM Pandit recorded the CBI’s request seeking more time to complete the formalities and fixed March 28 for it to produce the final report.

The CBI had given a clean chit to Tytler in November 2007, claiming that no incriminating evidence was found against him. It had further said that Jasbir Singh, whom the DSGMC touted as a prime witness, was untraceable.

However, a few days later on a news channel Jasbir expressed his willingness to depose against the Congress leader. Dismissing the closure report, the court had then asked the CBI to reinvestigate the case.

The court’s directive had come in the light of an affidavit filed by the US-based Jasbir before the Nanavati Commission in which he had said that on November 3, 1984, he had overheard Tytler rebuking his men for the nominal number of killings of Sikhs in his constituency.

After Jasbir refused to fly down to India from the US to record his statement, the CBI had gone to California to examine him.