India, Jan. 23 -- A daughter who watched her father being set on fire, a wife widowed in her youth, and a man who lost his loved ones in the 1984 riots. They all stood outside a Delhi court on Thursday, carrying the weight of their grief that has lingered for four decades.

Justice has been long, exhausting, and cruelly unfulfilled, the families said following the acquittal of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to alleged incitement of violence in the Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Despite this acquittal, Kumar remains in prison, having been sentenced to life imprisonment in other riot-related murder cases. Standing outside the courtroom, Nirmal Kaur recounted a childhood scorched by flames....