Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside conviction of 15 men held guilty of rioting and arson in a connection with anti-Sikh riots in East Delhi’s Trilokpuri in 1984.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said there was no direct evidence against these men and they were not identified by witnesses.
The Delhi High Court had upheld the 1996 verdict of the trial court convicting them of rioting and arson in November last year.
Police had recovered 95 dead bodies from Trilokpuri—one of the worst affected areas of Delhi in the riots that broke out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 30, 1984. More than 100 houses of Sikhs were also burnt.
But charges of murder could not be brought against any of the 80 accused.