Delhi HC closes Sajjan Kumar appeal in 1984 riot killings case

A Delhi trial court had sentenced the former Congress leader to life imprisonment for instigating a mob to kill a father and son.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday closed an appeal filed by former Indian National Congress leader and parliamentarian Sajjan Kumar in October 2025 challenging his conviction in the murder of a father and son during the “1984 anti-Sikh riots”, holding that the proceedings had abated following his death on August 20.

Kumar was convicted on February 12 and sentenced on February 25 in the killings of Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar. (HT Archive)

A bench of justices Prathiba M. Singh and Vikas Mahajan passed the order after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) sub-inspector informed the court that Kumar had died. “In view thereof, the present appeal is abated,” the court said.

The case concerns the killing of Jaswant Singh, 50, and his son Tarundeep Singh, 18, in Saraswati Vihar on November 1, 1984. A trial court in Delhi had convicted Kumar on February 12 for instigating a mob to kill the two and sentenced him to life imprisonment on February 25 this year.

The trial court had also flagged systemic failures that enabled Kumar to evade justice for decades, calling the Delhi Police’s acceptance of an “untrace report” in 1994 a “grave failure of justice”. The case was closed without notifying the complainant, Jaswant Singh’s wife. Kumar’s appeal had termed the February 12 verdict “perverse” and “illegal” and alleged that material on record had not been considered.

The 1984 riots followed then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, killing at least 2,800 people in Delhi.

Separately, an appeal by the CBI and a relative of a deceased Sikh man against Kumar’s acquittal in a Sultanpuri murder case remains pending before the Registrar for completion of pleadings, with no next date listed as of now. The trial court in Delhi acquitted Kumar in September 2023, following which the High Court issued notice in July 2024.