Sajjan Kumar , the controversial former Congress member of Parliament who was serving a life term for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died in a New Delhi Hospital on Thursday. He was 80.
It noted that he had a history of high blood pressure and Parkinson’s disease and had multiple hospital admissions in the past. The prominent Jat leader represented the erstwhile Outer Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha in three separate terms spread across three decades. The riots broke out following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on the morning of October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Kumar started his legislative journey as a municipal councillor from Nangloi in Delhi in 1977 and later rose to become the general secretary of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1980, 1991 and 2004.
Safdarjung Hospital, where he was taken from jail on Thursday morning after exhibiting signs of “altered sensorium”, said in a statement that he died at 12.30 pm despite medical and life-support measures being provided. Kumar is survived by his wife, two daughters and one son, according to his profile on the Lok Sabha website. The Supreme Court had been scheduled to hear a plea for parole by his lawyers on Thursday.
The party had long distanced itself from him. But the continuing controversy over his role in the riots cost him his seat — the Congress fielded his brother from the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency for the 2009 elections. In 2005, Manmohan Singh, the first Sikh Prime Minister of India, apologised in Parliament for the riots.
“What took place in 1984 is a negation of what is enshrined in our constitution and on behalf of my country I bow my head in shame for what has happened,” Singh said.
