Baba Gurbachan Singh acquitted

Who: Baba Gurbachan Singh, the chief of the Sant Nirankari Mission, and the Nirankari followers tried with him: 64 accused according to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, 62 according to a 1997 Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board report. The Sikhs killed at Amritsar on Baisakhi 1978 were marchers from the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, led by Fauja Singh, and from Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's Damdami Taksal.

What: On 13 April 1978 a Sikh procession marched to a Nirankari convention in Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Nirankari guards killed 13 of the marchers on the spot and wounded 78 others. ThePrint reports that Fauja Singh was killed by Gurbachan Singh's guard. Sources differ on the full toll: the Canadian board counts 13 Sikhs and 2 Nirankaris dead, and The Tribune says at least 17 died, most of them Sikhs. The Nirankaris say they were attacked.

The trial was held in Haryana. On 4 January 1980, two days before the Lok Sabha poll, the sessions judge at Karnal set free all the accused, Gurbachan Singh included. ThePrint says the court accepted that they had acted in self-defence. No one was convicted for the deaths of the Sikhs.

Where: The killings took place in Amritsar. The verdict came in a court at Karnal, Haryana.

Why it mattered: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the acquittal embittered Sant Bhindranwale, and that the Hindu press in Punjab sided with the Nirankaris in the name of secularism. The Canadian board's report says the acquittal angered orthodox Sikhs. The Encyclopaedia adds that the Congress, once back in power at the Centre, dismissed the Akali government in Punjab. After the 1978 clash the Akal Takht had already issued an edict telling Sikhs to cut ties with the Nirankaris, and the Dal Khalsa was formed in August 1978.

Gurbachan Singh was shot dead in April 1980, less than four months after the acquittal. Ranjit Singh was convicted of the murder and later became Jathedar of the Akal Takht.