``The 14th anniversary of the riots falls on Sunday, but till now not a single person has been punished for the carnage, which claimed 2,733 lives as per the final official records,'' H.S. Phoolka, member-secretary of the Justice Narula Committee, set up by the then Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana in 1993, lamented.

In the case of Bhajan Kaur vs Delhi Administration, Justice Anil Dev Singh of Delhi High Court in his judgement of July 5, 1996 had enhanced the compensation from Rs 20,000 to Rs 3.5 lakh and directed that the balance amount of Rs 3.3 lakh be paid to the families of those killed within a period of four months. Phoolka expressed surprise that a sizeable number of the affected families had been denied this compensation amount on ``technical grounds'' in spite of the fact that the Delhi Government had accepted the judgement and had not filed any appeal in the Supreme Court.

``The government has wrongly rejected the claim for compensation of those victims for whom the FIR of ``missing'' was lodged. The enhanced compensation of Rs 3.3 lakh has not been paid in such cases, despite the fact that initial compensation of Rs 20,000 was paid to them,'' said Phoolka, who pointed this out to Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj in a letter written on October 23 on the behalf of the committee which had been sending its recommendations on the issue to the Delhi government at regular intervals.

A large number of people whose compensation claims were rejected, have approached the High Court. And in a recent judgement in the case of Surinder Kaur vs Delhi Government, the court directed that since the initial compensation had been paid to the petitioner, the enhanced compensation of Rs 3.3 lakh also be paid to her. ``This judgement should be followed in all such cases so that the hapless victims are not forced to rush to court.''Phoolka, standing counsel of the central government in the High Court and also the convenor of the Citizens' Justice Committee, set up in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984, suggested the constitution of a one-man Commission under a retired district judge to decide the cases where the government has rejected the claims or disputed them.

``Under no circumstances, should the victim's family be forced to go the court and incur heavy expenses on litigation,'' he said. ``The 14th anniversary of the riots falls on Sunday, but till now not a single person has been executed for the killings,'' he said.

``We are pursuing the case with a motto that nobody should consider himself above law, however high he may be positioned and also to let the lumpen elements realise that they cannot take advantage of mob frenzy to commit such heinous crimes and go scot-free. Politics of violence cannot be tolerated in the largest democracy in the world,'' he said.

Regarding punishment, he said that five people were awarded death sentence by the trial court and the Delhi High Court recently confirmed the sentences of three of them, while setting aside the case of two. Appeals of the three, who have been awarded capital punishment, are pending in the Supreme Court which has confirmed life imprisonment for six other accused. ``In the cases of about 200 people who have been awarded varying sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment by the trial court, appeals are still pending in the High Court,'' he said adding that evidences were being examined in cases against some political leaders. Elaborating on how the figures of those killed in the riots were computed, Phoolka who has fought the cases of many victims, said the number of deaths recorded by police was 1,419 while the Delhi Administration had put the toll at 2,310. The report of Citizens' Justice Committee, an umbrella organisation of several human rights bodies, said 3,870 people were killed.

In view of the varying figures, the one-man inquiry commission of Justice R.N. Mishra, the then sitting judge of the Supreme Court, recommended the constitution of a committee to verify the lists supplied by various bodies, he said.

Subsequently, the government appointed the Ahuja Committee which in its report, submitted in 1988, put the number of those killed at 2,733 which has since been accepted as the final official toll,'' he explained. Phoolka said Justice Mishra had also recommended the constitution of two more committees to inquire into the allegations regarding omission in registration of criminal cases, particularly in the light of wide variance in the toll given by police and the Delhi Administration and also to probe the role of police.

Four more committees -- Jain-Banerjee Committee, Potti-Rosha Committee, Jain-Aggarwal Committee and Kapoor-Mittal Committee -- were set up before the Narula Committee in December 1993.