Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died on Wednesday. He was 80.
The violence followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, when she was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards. In the aftermath, attacks against Sikhs were reported in Delhi and several other states.
More than 2,700 Sikhs were killed during the riots, according to the report. Kumar was accused in a case linked to an incident on November 1, 1984, in Delhi’s Saraswati Vihar area, where five members of a Sikh family were allegedly burnt to death.
After a trial that continued for about 30 years, a court in December 2018 sentenced Kumar to life imprisonment, following which he was lodged in jail. He died due to old age and health complications, the report said.
