Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar Passes Away at Jail, While Serving Life Term In 1984 Riots Case

Guwahati: Today, former Member of Parliament and senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died at the age of 80. Hospital team said he was brought dead to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

Kumar, a three-time parliamentarian, had been at the centre of one of India’s longest-running legal battles arising from the violence that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

For more than three decades, he faced several criminal cases related to the riots, with courts delivering varying verdicts over the years.

In the Raj Nagar case in Delhi, involving the killing of five members of a family and the burning of a gurdwara, the Delhi High Court overturned his acquittal by a trial court in December 2018 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Kumar surrendered and had remained in custody since then.

In another case involving the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar on November 1984, Kumar was sentenced to a second life term in February 2025. The court spared him the death penalty, citing his age, health condition and conduct in prison.

Kumar had repeatedly sought bail and medical assistance

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