Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Aug 20: Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was convicted in cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died on Thursday at the age of 80 while serving life imprisonment in Tihar Jail.
Kumar was brought to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, where he was declared dead, according to sources cited by news agencies. The hospital has not yet disclosed the cause of death.
Kumar had been lodged in Tihar Jail since his conviction in the major 1984 riots case and was serving concurrent life sentences in two cases linked to the violence.
His most prominent conviction came in December 2018, when the Delhi High Court overturned his acquittal by a lower court in the Palam Colony-Raj Nagar case involving the killing of five Sikh men and the burning of a gurdwara. The High Court convicted him of criminal conspiracy and abetment and sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life.
In February 2025, a Rouse Avenue Court awarded Kumar another life sentence for the killing of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in the Saraswati Vihar area on November 1, 1984. The prosecution had sought the death penalty, but the court imposed life imprisonment.
The two life sentences were to run concurrently, meaning Kumar continued to remain in prison despite being acquitted in another 1984 riots case earlier this year.
On January 22, a Delhi court acquitted Kumar in cases concerning violence in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The court found that there was insufficient credible evidence establishing his presence at the scenes or his involvement in an unlawful assembly.
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots erupted in Delhi and other parts of India following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. Kumar, who was a prominent Congress leader in Delhi at the time, became one of the most high-profile political figures prosecuted over the violence.
His conviction in the 2018 Palam Colony case followed a reopened investigation and a long legal process spanning several decades. The Delhi High Court, while delivering its judgment, referred to the 1984 violence as “crimes against humanity”.
Kumar was a three-time Lok Sabha member from the Outer Delhi constituency and remained a prominent Congress figure before his political career was overshadowed by the long-running legal proceedings arising from the 1984 violence.
His death brings to an end the legal and political journey of one of the most prominent figures convicted in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.