For Harpal Singh, the news of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar’s death on Thursday (August 20, 2026) brought back traumatic memories from over four decades ago.
“There was fire everywhere. He burnt people alive. Mr. “I had left my home behind in the hope of making money. I was learning to drive and living at a relative’s house in Lajpat Nagar. When the attacks started, all I could see was fire everywhere,” he recalled. For Mr. Singh, Kumar’s death, after decades of waiting for accountability, brought a sense of relief. “Right where I lived, a Sikh man’s general store was brought down. After that, the rioters attacked the colony gurdwara and burnt it down. “The violence did not stop there. Two buses parked outside the market were also set on fire, killing and injuring people. Many were burnt alive,” Mr. Banerjee recalled.
Singh, a 60-year-old car driver, recalling the violence he witnessed Kumar inflict on the Sikh community. Singh had arrived in Delhi from Amritsar barely a month before the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, hoping to make a living in the city. He was 15.
He should have been killed long back,” said Mr. “He should have been given the death sentence but his death is a relief and, to an extent, justice to those who were killed,” he said. Fire and smoke were everywhere,” he said.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Harmeet Singh Kalka said Kumar’s death had evoked mixed emotions among victim families and the Sikh community.
