Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar dies at 80

Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, died on Thursday, PTI reported, citing sources at Safdarjung Hospital. The hospital has not yet clarified the cause of Kumar's death. He was 80. Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi high court on December 17, 2018, in a case involving the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a gurdwara during the riots.

He was serving the sentence at Delhi's Tihar Jail. In February 2025, a Delhi court also sentenced him to life imprisonment in another case involving the killing of two Sikh men during the riots. A three-time Lok Sabha member, Kumar represented the Outer Delhi constituency. He resigned from the Congress after his 2018 conviction. The anti-Sikh riots broke out following the October 31, 1984, assassination of Congress leader and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, who were seeking retaliation for the Army's Operation Blue Star in June that year.