Former Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar Dies Serving Life Sentence in 1984 Riots Cases
Former three-time Congress MP from Outer Delhi Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence following his conviction in cases stemming from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has died. A string of ongoing cases and appeals pending against him will now abate following his death.
Kumar, who once exercised considerable political influence over large swathes of the capital, resigned from the Congress party in December 2018 after being convicted by the Delhi High Court. His appeal against the 2018 conviction was scheduled to be heard alongside a plea from his counsel, Anuj Kumar Sharma, seeking relief on grounds of his advanced age and his wife's deteriorating medical condition.
Legal proceedings against Kumar spanned more than four decades, resulting in both convictions and acquittals. In the Raj Nagar case involving the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a gurdwara in Palam Colony in November 1984, Kumar was initially acquitted by a Karkardooma court in 2013. That decision was overturned by the Delhi High Court in December 2018 after appeals by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which had reinvestigated riot cases following the Justice Nanavati Commission report.
The High Court sentenced him to life imprisonment, holding that he actively abetted crimes through repeated exhortations and delivered provocative speeches to mobs in areas including Sultanpuri. In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected his petition for interim bail on medical grounds.
In February 2025, Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja sentenced Kumar to a second life term in connection with the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar. Earlier, Judge Dig Vinay Singh of Rouse Avenue Court acquitted Kumar in the Janakpuri-Vikaspuri riot case, citing a lack of evidence regarding mob instigation or conspiracy. He had also been acquitted in four other Sultanpuri cases, with two appeals pending before the High Court.
Kumar first entered public office as a municipal councillor in 1977 and later represented the Outer Delhi constituency in Parliament after winning elections in 1980, 1991, and 2004.
