1984 anti-Sikh riots: Delhi court acquits Sajjan Kumar in Vikaspuri, Janakpuri violence case

A Delhi court on Thursday, January 22, 2026, acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to inciting violence in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas of the national capital during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh orally pronounced a summary order acquitting Mr. Kumar. A reasoned decision is awaited.

In August 2023, a court charged Mr Kumar with sedition and inciting hostility, while also acquitting him on charges of murder and conspiracy.

In February 2015, a special investigation team registered two FIRs against Kumar based on complaints of violence in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri districts during the riots.

The first FIR was related to the violence at Janakpuri on November 1, 1984, in which Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh were killed.

The second FIR was registered in the case of Gurcharan Singh, who was allegedly set on fire in Vikaspuri on November 2, 1984.

Mr. Kumar, who is currently in jail, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court on February 25 last year in a case related to the murder of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar district on November 1, 1984.

The court had said that although the killing of “two innocent persons” in the case did not constitute a lesser crime, it was not a “rare rare case” that warranted the death penalty.

The trial court also said that the present case is a part of the same incident and can be viewed as a continuation of the incident for which Mr. Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018.

The Supreme Court had found him guilty of causing deaths of five people in a similar riot incident in the Palam Colony area after the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

According to a report by the Nanavati Commission, formed to investigate the violence and its aftermath, 587 FIRs have been filed in Delhi in connection with the riots that left 2,733 people dead. In total, around 240 FIRs were closed by the police on the grounds that they were “not pursued” and 250 cases ended in acquittal.

Out of 587 FIRs, only 28 resulted in conviction and nearly 400 people were convicted. Nearly 50 people, including a former MP, were convicted of murder.

Mr. Kumar, then an influential Congress leader and MP, had been accused in a case related to the murder of five people in Delhi’s Palam Colony on November 1 and 2, 1984.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in the case and his appeal against the sentence is ongoing before the Supreme Court.