4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 26, 2025 02:49 AM IST
Kumar is currently in jail after he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the HC in 2018 in a case related to the killing of five Sikhs and the burning down of a gurdwara on November 1-2, 1984. (Express Archive Photo)
A DELHI court on Tuesday sentenced former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment in a murder case linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Kumar is currently in Tihar Jail, where he is serving a life sentence handed by the Delhi High Court in 2018, in another 1984 riots case related to the killing of five Sikhs in Palam Colony.
The court said the offences committed by Kumar were “undoubtedly brutal and reprehensible”, but certain mitigating factors, including his age (80 years), illnesses and conduct in jail, “weigh in favour of imposing a lesser sentence, instead of death penalty”.
“From the evidence on record, it has been established that the victims in the present case not only witnessed the brutal killings of their family members at the hands of the rioting mob which the convict was a part of, but they were also witness to the burning and destruction of their dwelling house and looting of their belongings,” Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue court said in her sentencing order.
“The helplessness of the victims and the lack of any support whatsoever from the neighbours and also the police has also been established from their uncontroverted depositions. In these circumstances, I am of the considered opinion that this is a fit case where the convict must also be awarded life imprisonment…,” she said.
Along with murder (read with being a member of an unlawful assembly), Kumar was also sentenced to life for arson (read with being a part of unlawful assembly).
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Other offences in which he was sentenced were attempting to commit culpable homicide, voluntarily causing hurt, dacoity, rioting, and rioting with a deadly weapon. He was also fined over Rs 2.4 lakh. All his sentences will run concurrently.
The FIR in this case was registered in 1991, based on an affidavit dated September 9, 1985, filed by the complainant — the wife and mother of the victims —before the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission which was set up in 1985 to investigate the “organised violence”. The complainant was represented by senior advocate H S Phoolka and advocates Kamna Vohra and Gurbaksh Singh in court.
Kumar’s counsel, Anil Kumar Sharma, Anuj Sharma and Apoorav Sharma, told The Indian Express that they were likely to file an appeal against the sentence. Seeking death penalty for Kumar, the prosecution led by Additional Public Prosecutor Manish Rawat had submitted before the court last week that an incident of this kind breaks the “entire fibre of trust and harmony amongst communities”. Kumar was convicted in the case on February 12.
The Tihar Jail authorities had also submitted Kumar’s medical report and a report on his conduct. Citing this, the court said: “The ‘satisfactory’ conduct of the convict as per the report of the jail authorities, the ailments from which he is reportedly suffering, the fact that the convict has roots in the society and the possibility of his reformation and rehabilitation are material considerations which, in my opinion, tilt the scales in favour of sentence for life imprisonment instead of death penalty.”
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Kumar faces several other cases linked to the 1984 riots. In September 2023, a Delhi court acquitted him in a case linked to the murder of seven people from the Sikh community in Sultanpuri. He has another pending case in Rouse Avenue court, two appeals against his acquittals in the Delhi High Court and an appeal against his conviction in one case in the Supreme Court.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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