Social activist, Poonam Muttreja received phone calls at her home in Munirka Enclave, New Delhi on 1 November informing her about the water poisoning in Delhi’s water supply. Later, she heard the following announcement from her balcony on a public address system coming from what she thought was a police jeep, making its way towards the road leading to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU):

“Aap ke pani mein jahar mila dian gaya hain, kripya pani nahin pee jeaey.” [Your water contains poison, please don’t drink it].”

Affidavit of Poonam Muttreja submitted to the Misra Commission1

V. Khosla, a chartered accountant living in New Friends Colony in Delhi testified to a rumour being spread in his area that

‘The Sikhs had collected in a gurdwara on the ring road and were arming themselves with the intention to attack the houses of Hindus in our colony”.

Affidavit of V. Khosla submitted to the Misra Commission2

Retired Subedar Balwant Singh of Vashist Park, near Sagarpur also heard similar rumours, spread by the police that:

“The water supply had been poisoned and the Sikhs had come in trucks to attack the local residents.”

Affidavit of Subedar Balwant Singh (Retd.) submitted to the Misra Commission.3

Jaswant Kaur of Shahdara explained the effect of anti-Sikh messages promoted by the police:

“Anti Sikh feelings were being aroused by police officials by using their machinery and inhuman rumours were spread by Hindu police personnel to raise Anti Sikh feelings in the Hindus. Rumors of the nature that , Sikh extremists from Punjab have entered and are attacking and killing Hindus, water has been poisoned, trains full of Hindu dead bodies are coming from Punjab. Just after the spreading of these rumors by the policemen, huge mobs consisting of local residence having lists of Sikh residents started emerging. The persons leading the mob, having lists of Sikh residents started pointing towards the Sikhs.”

Affidavit of Jaswant Kaur submitted to the Misra Commission 4
  1. Affidavit of Poonam Muttreja submitted to the Misra Commission ↩︎
  2. Affidavit of V. Khosla submitted to the Misra Commission ↩︎
  3. Affidavit of Subedar Balwant Singh (Retd.) submitted to the Misra Commission ↩︎
  4. Affidavit of Jaswant Kaur. ↩︎

How false rumours about Sikhs were spread to strike fear into the majority Hindu community as a pretext to the genocide to follow.