Kanpur (UP), Jul 21 (IANS): The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the killings during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has arrested five more people accused of setting a building afire in which three persons were burnt to death.

The arrested have been identified as Anil Kumar Pandey,61, Sriram Baggad,65, Mustaqeem,70, Abdul Waheed,61, and Irshad Khan,60.

All are residents of the Kidwai Nagar.

Police officials said that the five had allegedly accompanied dozens of others to reach Nirala Nagar for setting the property of one Gurudyal Singh on fire in 1984.

Twelve families were residing at Gurudyal's property as tenants, and during the attack, three people were burnt alive. A rioter, identified as Rajesh Gupta, was also shot dead during cross-firing, he added.

With these fresh arrests from Nirala Nagar in Kidwai Nagar, the SIT head, DIG Balendu Bhushan Singh, said so far 27 people had been arrested in connection with the violence following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The DIG said that the SIT, constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government on May 27, 2019, on the orders of the Supreme Court, had been probing the anti-Sikh riots' cases for the last three years.

"We have been investigating 11 cases after identifying 96 prime suspects by exploring facts from witnesses settled in Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan," the DIG added.