No fresh evidence after 40 years, court sets aside FIR order in 1984 riots case

Delhi court overturns 2017 FIR order in 1984 anti-Sikh riots deathsNEW DELHI: More than 40 years after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a Delhi court has set aside a 2017 order directing registration of an FIR into the deaths of two men, holding that a criminal investigation could not be revived decades later in the absence of fresh and credible material.Special judge Bhupinder Singh, while acknowledging the lasting trauma of the riots, said, “Every proceeding must, at some point, reach finality” and sympathy for the loss “cannot substitute for the legal foundation necessary to sustain the proceedings”.The case stemmed from a complaint by riot survivor Amrik Singh, who sought registration of an FIR against then DCP Amod Kanth and then ACP/SHO SS Manan, alleging police inaction and wrongful arrest