Sajjan Kumar, a former Indian National Congress (INC) Member of Parliament (MP), died at the age of 80 on 20 August 2026 while serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail. He was declared brought dead at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi after being rushed there following complaints of uneasiness. Kumar, who served three terms in the Lok Sabha from Outer Delhi, was convicted for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, making his passing the end of a long and controversial political and legal saga.
Who Was Sajjan Kumar?
Early Life and Entry Into Politics
Sajjan Kumar was born on 23 September 1945 in Delhi to Raghunath Singh and Mee Kaur. Before entering politics, he ran a bakery business. His political rise began in 1977, when he was sworn in as a councillor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), one of the oldest municipal bodies in the country. He later became the general secretary of the Delhi unit of the Congress, known as the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC).
Kumar was closely associated with the political network around Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, this network of young loyalists rose rapidly within the Congress organisation.
A Three-Term Lok Sabha MP
Kumar first entered the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, in 1980 by winning the Outer Delhi constituency on a Congress ticket. He was elected a second time in 1991, and a third time in 2004, when he won by a huge margin, getting over 8.5 lakh votes. During his parliamentary career, he served on several committees, including the Committee on Urban Development and the Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).
However, his political career came under growing scrutiny over allegations linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Congress denied him a ticket for the 2009 Lok Sabha election, and the allegations eventually caught up with him through the courts.
What Were the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots?
The Assassination and the Aftermath
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh massacre, were a series of organised attacks against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984. The violence erupted across the country and lasted for several days, with Delhi recording the highest number of deaths.
Official government estimates put the number of Sikhs killed in Delhi at about 2,800, and around 3,350 nationwide, though independent sources and human rights groups estimate the figure to be between 8,000 and 16,000. Thousands of Sikh homes, businesses and gurdwaras (Sikh places of worship) were set ablaze, and many families lost their livelihoods and were displaced.
Multiple fact-finding teams, including one jointly run by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), concluded that the attacks were not a spontaneous outpouring of anger but were deliberately planned and organised. Survivors in several Delhi localities named Sajjan Kumar as one of the politicians most responsible for instigating and leading the mobs.
What Was the Case Against Sajjan Kumar?
The CBI Investigation and the 2013 Acquittal
For nearly two decades, Sajjan Kumar faced allegations but no court action. On the recommendation of the Justice G. T. Nanavati Commission, which was set up to inquire into the riots, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier investigating agency, in 2005.
The CBI concluded that there had been a conspiracy of “terrifying proportion” between Kumar and the police, and alleged that the Delhi Police had systematically removed his name from eyewitness accounts. In 2010, he was charged with murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between communities and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In April 2013, a district court in Karkardooma, Delhi, acquitted Kumar while convicting five others, leading to protests. The CBI then appealed against the acquittal in the Delhi High Court, which admitted the appeal in August 2013.
The 2018 Delhi High Court Conviction
On 17 December 2018, the Delhi High Court overturned the acquittal and convicted Kumar of criminal conspiracy and abetment in a case relating to the killing of five members of a Sikh family and the burning of a gurdwara. He was sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life.
A day after the verdict, Kumar resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and surrendered before the authorities. He challenged the conviction in the Supreme Court, India’s highest court, but his appeal remained pending at the time of his death.
The Second Conviction and the 2026 Acquittal
Kumar’s legal troubles did not end with the 2018 verdict. On 12 February 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. The two men had been assaulted by a mob of Congress supporters on 1 November 1984, doused with petrol and burnt alive. Fourteen eyewitnesses testified against Kumar for his role in leading the assault.
He was sentenced to a second life term on 25 February 2025. The prosecution had sought the death penalty, but the court cited his age and health while imposing a life sentence.
In January 2026, Kumar was acquitted in a separate case relating to riots in the Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas of Delhi. The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to establish his guilt in the murders of Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh. The acquittal did not affect his incarceration, as he remained in jail because of his other life sentences.
The Nanavati Commission and the Long Road to Justice
The cases against Kumar were part of the long and uneven pursuit of accountability for the 1984 violence. The Nanavati Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice G. T. Nanavati, was constituted by the Union government in 2000 to inquire into the riots. Its report, submitted in 2005, found that a “wide conspiracy” had been hatched by certain persons and organisations to eliminate Sikhs, and recommended that the CBI probe cases that had been closed or not investigated properly.
Decades after the riots, the government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2015 to re-examine 186 cases that had been closed without proper investigation. The Supreme Court later appointed another SIT headed by retired Justice S. N. Dhingra to further probe these cases. It was against this backdrop that Kumar’s long-pending cases were revived and pursued.
The lack of speedy accountability for the riots has been a long-standing grievance for the Sikh community. Over the years, several victims’ families received compensation from the government, with amounts being revised upward in later decades, but many families continue to demand fuller justice and a clearer accounting of those responsible.
Death and Legacy
Sajjan Kumar died on 20 August 2026 at the age of 80. He had been lodged in Tihar Jail, South Asia’s largest prison complex, located in Delhi, since December 2018. He had a medical history of high blood pressure and Parkinson’s disease. He was cremated at the Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi on 21 August 2026.
His death triggered a complex political reaction. Some Congress leaders from Delhi and Haryana mourned his passing, but Congress leaders from Punjab criticised him for his role in the anti-Sikh riots. The party’s top leadership maintained a conspicuous silence, reflecting the sensitivity of his name in Punjab, where the memory of the 1984 violence remains deeply emotive. One Congress MP’s tribute describing Kumar as a “role model” triggered protests by Sikh organisations, and the MP later expressed regret.
With his death, the criminal proceedings against him came to an end. But the political debate around the 1984 riots and the accountability of political leaders accused of involvement in the violence continues to this day.
Key Takeaways
- Sajjan Kumar, a three-term Congress MP from Outer Delhi, died on 20 August 2026 at the age of 80 while serving a life sentence.
- He was convicted by the Delhi High Court on 17 December 2018 for the killing of five members of a Sikh family and the burning of a gurdwara during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
- The riots followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984; official estimates put the deaths at around 2,800 in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide.
- Kumar was given a second life sentence on 25 February 2025 for the murders of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh.
- He resigned from the Indian National Congress (INC) in December 2018, a day after his conviction.
- The Justice G. T. Nanavati Commission, constituted in 2000, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed in 2015 played key roles in reviving the cases against him.
