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Sajjan Kumar Dies: Who Was The Ex-Congress MP Convicted In 1984 Riots?

Samira Vishwas | August 20, 2026 7:24 PM CST

Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar died on Thursday at the age of 80 while serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He was rushed to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital after his health took a turn for the worse and was declared brought dead on arrival.

A Three-Time MP Turned Convict

Once a powerful Congress leader from Delhi, Kumar represented Outer Delhi as a three-time Lok Sabha MP before his political career was overtaken by decades of legal battles tied to the riots that broke out after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984. More than 2,700 people were killed in the violence that followed, according to official figures, with the Nanavati Commission recording 587 FIRs filed in Delhi alone.

The Cases Against Him

Kumar was accused of inciting mobs during the riots and faced multiple prosecutions over the years, many of which were reopened after a Special Investigation Team was set up in February 2015. He was first convicted in December 2018, when the Delhi High Court overturned an earlier acquittal and held him guilty of inciting a mob that killed five Sikhs in Delhi Cantonment. He surrendered before a court that same month and began serving his life term.

In February 2025, a Delhi court handed him a second life sentence, this time for the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in the Saraswati Vihar area on November 1, 1984. Notably, in January this year, a Rouse Avenue court had acquitted him in a separate case linked to violence in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri, giving him the benefit of the doubt over the killings of Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh, and the burning of Gurcharan Singh. That acquittal was later challenged, with the Delhi High Court issuing notice on the appeal in May.

Kumar’s Supreme Court appeal against his earlier conviction remained pending at the time of his death, closing out a legal battle that had stretched across nearly four decades.

Khushi Patel

Khushi Patel is a Senior Sub Editor at NewsX, covering automotive, technology, Lifestyle, entertainment, and mainstream news. She previously worked as a Copy Editor at Times Network and has written automotive editorial content, including comparison pieces, for TimesDrive.

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