New Delhi: Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence at Tihar Jail in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, died on Thursday after his health deteriorated. He was 80.
Kumar was shifted to Safdarjung Hospital after his condition worsened. Doctors declared him dead after he was brought to the hospital, sources said.
The former Congress leader was convicted for his role in the killing of five Sikhs in the Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment during the violence that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
The Delhi High Court convicted Kumar in December 2018 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court held him responsible for the killings and the burning of a gurdwara during the riots.
Kumar had challenged the conviction and life sentence, with his appeal pending before the Supreme Court.
The 1984 violence erupted in Delhi and other parts of the country after Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Thousands of Sikhs were killed in the violence that followed.
In January this year, the Delhi High Court acquitted Kumar in two other cases related to the riots, citing insufficient evidence. His life sentence in the Raj Nagar killings case, however, continued.
Kumar, a former Lok Sabha MP from Delhi, remained in Tihar Jail while pursuing his legal challenge and receiving treatment for health complications.