PTI
New Delhi
Controversial former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving two life sentences in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died here at the age of 80 on Thursday.
Kumar is survived by his wife, two daughters and one son, according to his profile on the Lok Sabha website.
His cremation would take place here on Friday.
Kumar was brought by police to the Safdarjung Hospital from Tihar jail around 11 am with altered sensorium.
“… He was immediately admitted and resuscitation measures were initiated,” the hospital said in a statement.
“Despite providing all necessary medical and life-support measures, he could not be saved and passed away at 12:30 pm,” it said.
“He was a known case of high blood pressure and Parkinson’s disease and had a history of multiple hospital admissions in the past,” the statement added.
Incidentally, the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear Kumar’s plea seeking three-week parole on medical grounds concerning his ailing wife on Thursday.
According to the cause list, Kumar›s plea was scheduled to be heard in the regular list but it did not come up
for hearing.
Kumar entered politics as a municipal councillor from Nangloi in Delhi and later rose to become the general secretary of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee in 1977. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1980, 1991 and 2004.
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 burning of a gurdwara during the anti-Sikh riots.
He resigned from the party after this conviction.
Kumar 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.
The riots broke out following the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984 and left thousands of people dead across the country, with Delhi among the worst-affected areas.
According to a report of the Nanavati Commission, constituted to probe the 1984 violence and its aftermath, there were 587 FIRs filed in Delhi. Only 28 cases of these 587 FIRs resulted in convictions. About 50 were convicted for murder, including Kumar.
The Haryana Congress Legislature Party in a meeting held in Chandigarh under former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda condoled Kumar›s death. They paid tributes and also stood in silence in his memory.
