Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar Dies at 80 in Tihar Jail While Serving Life Sentence in 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots Case
Sunil Negi
NEW DELHI | 20 August 2026
Former Member of Parliament and veteran Congress leader Sajjan Kumar breathed his last today at Tihar Jail in Delhi, where he was serving life imprisonment after being convicted for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He was 80.
A prominent Jat leader of Delhi during the Congress regime, Sajjan Kumar was a three-time MP from Outer Delhi constituency. Born on 23 September 1945 in Delhi, he started his political career as a municipal councillor in 1977 and was considered close to late Sanjay Gandhi. A bakery owner by profession, he rose quickly in Delhi Congress and became General Secretary of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee before being elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980. He was again elected in 1991 and then in 2004, when he won the Outer Delhi seat with over 8.5 lakh votes.
His political career was shadowed by allegations of involvement in the anti-Sikh violence that erupted in Delhi after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards. Delhi saw four days of targeted violence in which more than 2,700 Sikhs were killed, with over 2,000 deaths in Delhi alone.
*The Legal Battle: From Acquittals to Life Imprisonment*
Sajjan Kumar faced a prolonged legal battle lasting almost four decades. He was named as the leader of a mob that attacked Sikhs in Raj Nagar, Palam Colony, Janakpuri, Vikaspuri and Saraswati Vihar areas on November 1 and 2, 1984.
In 2018, in a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court reversed his acquittal by a trial court and sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder, criminal conspiracy and inciting mobs that killed five members of a Sikh family and burnt a gurdwara in Raj Nagar, Palam Colony. The Supreme Court refused to grant him bail and he has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 31 December 2018.
In February 2025, a Delhi court again sentenced him to life imprisonment in a separate case relating to the murder of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar on November 1, 1984. The court observed that though it was not the “rarest of rare” case for death penalty, the killing of two innocent persons was part of the continuing anti-Sikh violence.
The case was based on two FIRs registered in February 2015 by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted on the recommendation of Justice G.P. Mathur Committee. The FIRs related to the killings of Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh in Janakpuri on November 1, 1984, and the burning of Gurcharan Singh in Vikaspuri on November 2, 1984.
Interestingly, on 22 January 2026, Rouse Avenue Court acquitted him in that Janakpuri-Vikaspuri rioting and promoting enmity case, holding that most prosecution witnesses were hearsay and there was no evidence of instigating the mob. Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh discharged him of murder charges in that case. However, he continued to remain in jail because of his two life sentences in other cases.
Victims’ families, who fought for 40 years, had reacted sharply to that acquittal, demanding capital punishment and saying they would approach the Supreme Court.
Sajjan Kumar had resigned from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress in 2018 after his conviction.
According to jail officials, he was unwell for some time. Further details about his last rites are awaited.
