Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, died on Thursday at the age of 80. He was brought dead to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, according to hospital sources.
Kumar’s death comes months after a Delhi trial court acquitted him in another case related to the 1984 violence. The acquittal was subsequently challenged before the Delhi High Court, which had issued notice to Kumar in May and listed the matter for hearing on September 29.
The Rouse Avenue court had acquitted Kumar on January 22, 2026, in a case concerning the killings of Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh in Janakpuri, as well as the alleged burning of Gurcharan Singh in Vikaspuri.
The court held that the prosecution had failed to establish Kumar’s presence at the crime scene or prove his involvement beyond reasonable doubt. It also cited a lack of credible evidence regarding his participation in an unlawful assembly or his involvement through instigation, conspiracy or abetment.
The case was among those reopened decades after the violence that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. The reopening followed the constitution of a Special Investigation Team on the recommendation of the Justice GP Mathur Committee.
The January acquittal was challenged by 1984 riots victim Manjit Singh. The appeal argued that the trial court had failed to properly assess witness testimonies and other ocular and circumstantial evidence concerning Kumar’s alleged role.
The Janakpuri case related to the killings of Sohan Singh and Avtar Singh on November 1, 1984, while the Vikaspuri case concerned the alleged burning of Gurcharan Singh the following day. The FIRs in the two cases were registered in 1992.
Kumar had also faced another major case linked to the 1984 riots. The Delhi High Court had earlier convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment. His appeal against that conviction was pending before the Supreme Court at the time of his death.
Kumar had consistently denied involvement in the violence and maintained that he had been falsely implicated. In the case decided in January, he had told the court that he was not present at the locations where the alleged offences took place.
Kumar, a three-time Congress MP from Delhi, remained one of the most prominent political figures to face prosecution over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
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