Kumar, who was serving life imprisonment in Tihar jail, was rushed to state-run Safdarjung Hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead. Sajjan Kumar, a former Congress MP convicted in a 1984 Sikh riots case, died aged 80 at a Delhi hospital on Thursday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which later probed the case, found that Kumar had conspired with the police to erase his name from eyewitness testimonies. His lawyer appealed to the Supreme Court, but it was rejected. Fourteen eyewitnesses testified against him.
In 2010, he was charged with murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy, and inciting violence. In 2013, a district court acquitted him, but the CBI challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court. In December 2018, the Delhi High Court sentenced Kumar to life imprisonment for his role in the 1984 riots. On February 12, 2025, a Delhi court convicted him in a second case for instigating and participating in the murder of Jaswant Singh and his son, Tarundeep Singh, on November 1, 1984. On February 25, 2025, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for this case.
