The Judgment that Acquitted Congress Party Leader Sajjan Kumar

Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images Sikh activists stopped a Metro train in New Delhi on Wednesday during a demonstration against the acquittal of Congress Party leader Sajjan Kumar.

NEW DELHI â€"The acquittal of Sajjan Kumar, the Indian Congress Party leader, for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that killed thousands in Delhi has sparked widespread protests.

Since the acquittal on murder and rioting charges was announced, protesters in Delhi have stopped Metro trains, blocked roads, and on Thursday they clashed with police officers at the home of the Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.

Additional Sessions Judge J.R. Aryan’s 129-page judgment explaining his decision was released on Wednesday by the Delhi District Court.

Mr. Kumar “deserves to be given benefit of doubt” because three key prosecution witnesses had not named Mr. Kumar until more than two decades after the riots, the judge said. These three key witnesses claimed to have seen Mr. Kumar inciting a mob to kill Sikhs in the Raj Nagar area of Delhi on Nov. 1, 1984, which led to the murder of five Sikh men in the locality.

The judge said two witnesses, Jagdish Kaur, whose husband and son were killed in the Raj Nagar area, and Nipreet Kaur, whose father was killed, had not named Mr. Kumar in their statements recorded in 1985. He also described Ms. Jagdish’s testimony of Mr. Kumar provoking a mob to kill Sikhs on Nov. 1, 1984, as “not acceptable and believable.”

Ms. Kaur and the third witness, Jagsher Singh, whose three brothers were killed, had only named Mr. Kumar for the first time in statements recorded in 2007, the judge said. The judge also said that Mr. Kumar had not been named in any police complaints concerning incidents on Nov. 1 and 2, 1984, in Raj Nagar.

The defense counsel for Mr. Kumar had argued that he was not in the area during the murder of the five Sikh men, and that the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses were riddled with holes.

Jaipal Singh/European Pressphoto Agency Another demonstration by sikh community members against the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

At least 3,000 Sikhs were killed in a two-day massacre following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards on Oct. 31, 1984. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen politicians from the Congress Party inciting mobs to carry out revenge attacks.

In the verdict, the judge also criticized the Delhi police for “maintaining complete silence on Nov. 1 and Nov 2,” the two days when Sikhs were killed in the capital.

“It has been rightly argued by lead public prosecutor that police appeared to be privy in the incidents of rioting may be by maintaining their status as silent spectator,” he wrote.