India, Aug. 4 -- A Delhi court has acquitted a man in a 20-year-old kerosene hoarding case, holding that the prosecution failed to produce even a single independent public witness and could not prove he was in conscious possession of the seized fuel.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Tushar Gupta was hearing the case against Suraj Bhan, accused of illegally possessing 660 litres of blue kerosene oil meant for the public distribution system in northeast Delhi in July 2006.

In an order dated July 24, the court said the prosecution failed to establish any specific violation of the Control Order, could not prove conscious possession or exclusive control of the seized commodity, and that the seizure proceedings suffered from material infi...