Kanpur, March 2 -- A court here has acquitted 45 individuals in a 27-year-old case of rioting, which claimed the life of a police gunner, due to lack of evidence.
The violence took place on January 9, 1998, when hundreds of people protested demanding the arrest of those responsible for allegedly assaulting the Imam of a mosque in Laxmipurwa area of Kanpur and disrupting the district's power supply.
The fast track court's recent decision to acquit all 45 accused came after the prosecution failed to present a strong case against the undertrials, according to defense counsel Shakeel Ahmad Bundel who represented 24 of the 77 accused in the case. Bundel said all the 45 accused were out on bail prior to the court's verdict.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.