Overview
- The High Court, which delivered its order Tuesday, dismissed nine accused persons’ bids to quash the cases and said the 1984 violence amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.
- The judge held that decades of delay and missing original files do not justify ending prosecutions, and said identity disputes or an alibi must be decided during trial.
- Relying on reconstructed FIRs and survivor testimony recorded by a Special Investigation Team, the court found a prima facie case and kept proceedings before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kanpur Nagar.
- The court pointed to Supreme Court directions, including a July 2025 request to take riot cases out of turn, as a reason to move the long‑pending matters ahead quickly.
- Context from case records shows 186 Uttar Pradesh cases were identified for review, 20 in Kanpur led to 11 charge sheets naming 74 living accused, and trials have begun in five with witnesses now testifying.