A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to inciting violence in the Janakpuri area of the national capital during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh orally pronounced a brief order acquitting Kumar, while noting that a reasoned order is awaited.

The case stemmed from two FIRs registered in February 2015 by a special investigation team over incidents of violence during the riots in the Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas.

The first FIR pertained to violence in Janakpuri, where two men — Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh — were killed on November 1, 1984. The second FIR related to the killing of Gurcharan Singh, who was allegedly set ablaze on November 2, 1984, in Vikaspuri.

In August 2023, a court had charged Kumar with rioting and promoting enmity in the case, while discharging him of murder and criminal conspiracy offences.

Kumar, who is currently in jail, continues to serve a life sentence awarded on February 25 last year by a trial court in a separate case concerning the killing of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh on November 1, 1984, in the Saraswati Vihar area.

The trial court had said that though the killings of “two innocent persons” were serious, the case did not fall under the “rarest of rare” category warranting the death penalty.

The court had also observed that the Saraswati Vihar case was part of the same sequence of events and could be seen as a continuation of the incident for which Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018.

In that case, the high court found him guilty of causing the deaths of five people during rioting in the Palam Colony area following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. His appeal against that conviction is pending before the Supreme Court.

Reacting to Thursday’s acquittal, Anil Kumar Sharma, counsel for Sajjan Kumar, said, “The court has acquitted him as no allegations against him could be proved in the Vikaspuri and Janakpuri cases. None of these witnesses took Sajjan Kumar’s name 38 years ago, not even once. There is no fresh evidence, no fresh version, no new story. They failed in their attempt to target him. We are thankful to the judiciary for acquitting him.”

However, survivors and family members of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims expressed outrage and anguish over the verdict.

“We thought we'd get justice. We've been fighting the case for 42 years. Why isn't the government giving justice now? What was the fault of our Sikhs? They burned my father in front of my eyes,” a petitioner said.

BJP leader RP Singh said the legal battle would continue despite the acquittal. “Sajjan Kumar has already been sentenced to life imprisonment. To the best of my knowledge, he has received life sentences in three cases. In those three cases, he will have to spend his entire life in jail. This fourth case is a separate one, it was related to inciting riots in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri, in which he was acquitted. However, this fight will be pursued further. We expect the CBI to take this matter forward, and the Delhi Gurdwara Committee will also pursue it, because his role in instigating the riots is known to everyone,” he said.

According to the Nanavati Commission report, which probed the 1984 violence and its aftermath, 587 FIRs were filed in Delhi in connection with the riots that left 2,733 people dead. Of these, around 240 FIRs were closed as “untraced,” about 250 cases ended in acquittal, and only 28 resulted in convictions, involving around 400 people. About 50 people, including Kumar, were convicted of murder in various cases.