27 anti-Sikh riots accused acquitted in Bihar

A Bihar court has acquitted all the 27 accused in anti-Sikh riot cases of 1984 in Bihar's Rohtas district for want of evidence.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (III) Nand Kishore Sharma, while acquitting the accused on May 31, also rapped the police machinery for its failure to produce the four witnesses, which led to their acquittal.

The four witnesses, all policemen, did not turn up on behalf of the prosecution despite repeated reminders issued by the court to the SP office and legal cell department of state's crime department.

Following assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, rioters had gone berserk and set on fire a number of shops located on Jhabarmal Gali, Cinema Road on Dehri-on-Sone, GT road.

The police after arresting 61 anti socials, filed an FIR against them with the Dehri-on-Sone police station on the basis of the statement of the then officer-in-charge K Jha and submitted a chargesheet against them on February 28, 1985. Final charges were framed against 28 accused on June 30, 2006, after 21 years and the trial began.