New Delhi: 1984 anti Sikh riots convict and accused Sajjan Kumar died on Thursday (August 20) at the age of 80 years. He breathed his last at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital early in the morning. Kumar was reportedly suffering from medical ailments.
Tihar Jail security personnel moved the former Congress MP was rushed to AAIMS after he complained of medical complications. However, he was declared brought dead by doctors.
Notably, Kumar was convicted in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and was serving life imprisonment at Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
Kumar was convicted last year on February 12 in the case under sections related to rioting, unlawful assembly, murder, etc. by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment 13 days later.
The former Congress MP was sentenced to life under section 302 IPC (murder) and 436 IPC (mischief by fire or explosive substance). Under sections 147 and 148, he was sentenced to two and three years behind bars, respectively, with a fine.
Meanwhile, families of those killed had demanded the death penalty for him.
While convicting Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment in 2018, Justice S Murlidhar and Justice Vinod Goel had said, “This was an extraordinary case where it was going to be impossible to proceed against A-1 (Kumar) in the normal scheme of things because there appeared to be ongoing large-scale efforts to suppress the cases against him by not even recording or registering them. Even if they were registered they were not investigated properly and even the investigations which saw any progress were not carried to the logical end of a charge sheet actually being filed”.
He was also convicted by the Delhi High Court in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in 2018 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The high court had pronounced its verdict on the appeals challenging a trial court’s judgement in which former Congress MP had earlier been acquitted.
After assassination of PM Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards, Congress leaders were accused of instigating and planning the worst riots in the Capital. Between 31st October 1984-3rd November 1984 Delhi saw large mob targeting Sikhs. Over 3000 Sikhs were killed in the Capital. Various commissions and inquiries including CBI probe had blamed Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for the riots.