New Delhi, March 5: If there’s one man who is looking with envy at Lalu Prasad, it is Sajjan Kumar.

While the Centre has refused the CBI permission to challenge the railway minister’s acquittal in a corruption case, the ghost of the Sikh riots returned to haunt Kumar after Delhi High Court today admitted the agency’s appeal against his exoneration by a lower court.

The Congress MP from Outer Delhi was accused of killing a person, identified as Navin Kumar, on November 1, 1984, when riots broke out in the capital after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After facing trial for around 20 years, Kumar and some other local Congress leaders were acquitted on December 23, 2002.

The CBI, which maintained that it had a strong case against the Congress leader, filed an appeal against his acquittal in 2003. But the appeal remained pending before the high court. The petition was finally admitted today and the court has decided to hold daily hearings.

But the agency’s plan to challenge Lalu Prasad’s acquittal has been shot down by the Centre.

It is learnt that the law ministry has rejected the CBI’s request for permission to file an appeal against a Patna court’s order trashing the corruption case against the railway minister and his wife, former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi.

Under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, permission from the Centre is mandatory to file an appeal against a court order.

The ministry has told the CBI that challenging the acquittal will not be legally viable. The law ministry wants the 90-day deadline for filing an appeal to lapse.