Sajjan Kumar, former Congress MP convicted in 1984 riots, dies at 80

Sajjan Kumar, a former three-time Member of Parliament for the Indian National Congress, died on Thursday at the age of 80. While serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail, his health deteriorated, and he was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, where he was declared brought dead on arrival.

Kumar was a central figure in decades of legal proceedings stemming from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In December 2018, the Delhi High Court convicted him for his role in the Palam Colony case, which involved the murder of five Sikh men and the burning of a gurdwara. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for this crime.

In February 2025, a special court handed him a second life sentence in the Saraswati Vihar case, involving the deaths of Jaswant Singh and his son, Tarundeep Singh. While he had been acquitted in other related cases, such as those in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri, he remained incarcerated due to his previous convictions. Kumar had resigned from the Congress party following his 2018 conviction.