Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Delhi court ruled on his involvement in the Saraswati Vihar killings, marking his second life sentence.
A Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi sentenced former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, specifically in the Saraswati Vihar violence case. This is the second life sentence handed to Kumar, who is already serving a term for his involvement in the Delhi Cantonment riots case.
Police sought death penalty for Kumar
During the hearing, the Delhi Police and the victims urged the court to classify the case as “rarest of the rare” and demanded capital punishment for the former MP. In their written submission, the police argued that this case was even more gruesome than the Nirbhaya case, as it targeted an entire community rather than an individual.
“The 1984 Sikh massacre was a crime against humanity,” the prosecution stated, emphasising the brutality and scale of the violence.
Brutal killings in Saraswati Vihar
The case pertains to the murders of two Sikh men—Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh—on November 1, 1984, in Saraswati Vihar, Delhi. The two victims were brutally killed during the riots that followed the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The FIR in this case was registered at the Saraswati Vihar Police Station in North Delhi, based on affidavits submitted by the victims’ families to the Ranganath Mishra Commission, which was set up to investigate the 1984 riots.
A case that shook the nation
The police further argued that the 1984 riots deeply shook the collective conscience of society, as they were orchestrated attacks against a specific religious community.
With multiple convictions and renewed legal proceedings against those accused in the anti-Sikh riots, this verdict marks another milestone in delivering justice to the victims and their families.
