India, May 4 -- Nearly four decades after a man was stabbed to death during a communal flare-up in Dongri, a sessions court in Mumbai on Saturday acquitted the sole remaining accused in the case, holding that the prosecution had proved the occurrence of rioting and a homicidal death but failed entirely to connect the accused to the crime.

"No incriminating material was brought by the prosecution to connect the accused with the crime," additional sessions judge Mahesh K Jadhav said in the order.

The evidence on record did not reflect that the accused, Mohammad Rafiq Shaikh, had participated in rioting or that he was part of the mob that allegedly had attacked the deceased on the day of Muharram, the judge said, acquitting Shaikh of a clu...