1984 Anti-Sikh Riots: Sajjan Kumar Surrenders Before Delhi Court

NEW DELHI — Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar on Monday surrendered before a Delhi court to serve his life sentence in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which he was convicted by the Delhi High Court.

He surrendered before Metropolitan Magistrate Aditi Garg.

The 73-year-old former Congress leader was sentenced to life for the “remainder of his natural life” by the Delhi High Court on 17 December. It had set a deadline of 31 December for Kumar to surrender.

The high court had on 21 December declined his plea to extend the time of his surrender by a month.

He has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the conviction and the life sentence awarded by the high court.

The case in which Kumar was convicted and sentenced relates to the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part-I area of Palam Colony in southwest Delhi on 1-2 November, 1984, and burning down of a gurudwara in Raj Nagar part II.

The riots had broken out after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.