Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, died on Thursday. He breathed his last at Safdarjung Hospital, aged 80. The hospital has, however, not yet clarified the cause of his death.

A three-time Lok Sabha member, he represented the Outer Delhi constituency and had been a prominent Congress leader. He resigned from the party after his 2018 conviction.

Sajjan Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018, in a case related to the killing of five Sikhs and the destruction of a gurdwara during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

He was also sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court in February 2025 in another case relating to the killing of two Sikh men during the riots, news agency PTI said. Kumar was lodged in Tihar Jail.

A Delhi court in January had acquitted him in a case linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, offering him a legal reprieve in one of the many prosecutions arising out of the mass violence that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Kumar was accused of inciting a mob that allegedly carried out violence in West Delhi’s Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas. The court, however, ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations and extended him the benefit of the doubt.

More than 2,700 people were killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, according to official figures. The Nanavati Commission, which was constituted to investigate the riots, had said that 587 FIRs were filed in Delhi. Of these, police closed 240 as "untraced" and the accused were acquitted in 250 cases. Around 400 people were convicted in 28 cases, with around 50 convicted for murder, including Kumar.

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