Delhi Metro station shut after protests over Sajjan Kumar's acquittal in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case

Some protesters blocked the road near the Tilak Nagar Police Station. Some of them even entered the Subhash Nagar Metro station nearby and protested on the tracks. Authorities have shut down the Metro station.

Sikh protesters blocked the Jammu-Pathankot National Highway for over an hour this morning. They shouted slogans against the UPA government and demanded punishment for Mr Kumar.

Mr Kumar, a former Congress MP, was acquitted yesterday of murder and of instigating a riotous mob that killed five Sikhs in Delhi's cantonment area on November 2, 1984. Five other people accused in the case have been convicted, three of them of murder.

The families of riot victims protested as the Congressman's acquittal was announced in the special CBI court. A man named Karnail Singh threw a shoe at the judge and was arrested. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody today.

The Delhi cantonment riots case was registered against Sajjan Kumar in 2005 on the recommendation of the Nanavati Commission. The CBI had filed two chargesheets against him and the other accused in January 2010.

Mr Kumar, who was then the Congress MP from Outer Delhi, is also accused of instigating a mob during riots in the Sultanpuri area. Six people were killed in the violence there.

The Delhi High Court deferred a decision in that case on Monday and posted the next hearing for May 15. The High Court is hearing Mr Kumar's petition challenging a trial court order to frame charges against him in the Sultanpuri case. He is accused of murder and rioting and spreading enmity between two communities in that case. He is also facing trial in another case related to anti-Sikh riots in the Nangloi area of Delhi.

In 2010, the Supreme Court had refused to quash charges against Mr Kumar and said the trial would continue against him. It had also pulled up the CBI for failing to conclude its arguments and taking too much time.

Earlier this month, a Delhi court reopened an anti-Sikh riots case against another Congress leader Jagdish Tytler. He is accused of inciting a mob that killed three men during the riots.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots broke out after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. 3000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone. In the 29 years since the riots, only 30 people have been convicted, none of them high-profile politicians, though several Congress leaders have been accused of inciting violence.