Sajjan Kumar acquitted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case

Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and all other accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case were on Monday acquitted by a Delhi court for lack of evidence.

Kumar said that the verdict proved that he was innocent. Additional Session Judge Manju Goel acquitted all the accused in the case saying the prosecution has failed to produce enough evidence to link Kumar and other accused to the killing of Sikhs in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

The case against Kumar was instituted on a complaint by one Anwar Kaur, who alleged that a mob instigated by him had killed her husband in the Sultanpuri area in West Delhi on November 1, 1984, a day after Gandhi's assassination.

CBI, which probed the case, had chargesheeted Kumar and twelve others - Nathu Pradhan, Brahmanand Gupta, Udal Singh, Shishram, Jai Bhagwan Gupta, Peera Ram, Hanuman Prasad, Satyaveer Singh, Mahender Singh, Islam, Rajendra Singh and Jai Kishen - on December 22, 1994.

The Court said that the prosecution has failed to prove the commissioning of the offence by Kumar and others and observed that there were serious contradictions in the statements of the witnesses produced by the investigating agency.