Delhi HC abates Sajjan Kumar’s appeal against conviction in 1984 riots case following his death

Following his death last week, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday closed an appeal by former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar challenging his conviction in a murder case arising from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Sajjan Kumar, who was serving two life sentences in Tihar jail in connection with the 1984 riots, died on August 20.

“In view thereof, the present appeal would abate,” a bench of justices Prathiba M Singh and Vikas Mahajan said.

This case was about the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar on November 1, 1984.

Anti-Sikh riots broke out in Delhi after the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her Sikh bodyguards.

Kumar was awarded life imprisonment in the case on February 25, 2025, by a trial court here after his conviction on February 12, 2025.

The trial court had said though the killings of “two innocent persons” were no less an offence, it was not a “rarest of rare case” warranting the imposition of the death penalty.

The trial court awarded life imprisonment to Kumar for being part of the mob which set afire the house of the victims and “brutally killed” the two victims besides looting their belongings.

It had also imposed a fine of around Rs 2.4 lakh on Kumar.

Earlier, Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018, in another case related to the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a gurdwara during the anti-Sikh riots.