delhi

Updated: May 01, 2019 07:33 IST

The Supreme Court acquitted 15 men convicted in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case on Tuesday. The top court set aside the Delhi high court order that awarded five-year jail terms for offences of rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew in East Delhi’s Trilokpuri’s area.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi allowed five appeals filed by the convicts challenging the November 28, 2018 HC verdict, which upheld the trial court verdict convicting the accused.

The court said there was no direct evidence against these accused and they were not identified by witnesses. The instant case is related to riots that occurred in Trilokpuri between October 31 and November 3 in 1984.Almost 3,000 people were killed, most of them in Delhi, in the anti-Sikh riots that broke out following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

The trial court had on August 27, 1996, convicted them of rioting and arson. 95 dead bodies were recovered from Trilokpuri—one of the worst affected areas of Delhi in the riots. However, charges of murder could not be brought against any of the 80 accused.

HC had upheld the conviction of 70 out of the 89 people who were sentenced to five years of jail by the trial court for rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew during the riots.