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Sajjan Kumar (born 23 September 1945) is a former Indian politician and convicted Murder. He was a prominent leader of Indian National Congress. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from Outer Delhi as a member of the Indian National Congress but resigned from the primary membership of the party after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the murder and involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
In 1980, he elected to 7th Lok Sabha, and was a Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Works and Housing in the Lok Sabha. At the time, he was a Sanjay Gandhi loyalist and a bakery owner.
In 1991, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha, and then again in 2004 when he won the outer Delhi seat, wherein he got 855,543 votes, representing Indian National Congress. Following his election in 2005, he served as Member, Committee on Urban Development and Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.
Similarly, Sikh riot survivors in the locality of Mangolpuri nearly unanimously named Kumar as having "masterminded the violence." They alleged that Kumar had given Rs. 100 and a bottle of liquor to each attacker in the riots. The investigators also observed Sikh riot survivors confront Kumar directly at the Mangolpuri police station accusing him of being responsible for the riots. Later, Kumar attempted to provide food aid to hungry Sikh survivors at a refugee camp, but the refugees refused it, saying that he was behind the riots in the first place.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on 17 December 2018 for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, being convicted for murders of five family members and burning of a gurudwara. On 18 December 2018, he resigned from his party. His lawyer said that they would appeal in the Supreme Court of India.
Kumar later filed an interim bail plea on medical grounds in the Supreme Court, but it was rejected by the court on 13 May 2020 stating that he did not need to be admitted to a hospital; however, the court scheduled a hearing of his regular bail plea in July. It later rejected another interim bail plea on 4 September and said he did not need to be admitted to a hospital, but stated it will hear his appeal after the courts resume their regular functioning which was affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A special CBI court granted him bail in one case related to the 1984 riots on 27 April 2022, however he remained in jail due to his conviction in another case related to the riots. The Delhi High Court however stayed his release in July 2022 after it was challenged by the Special Investigation Team investigating him.
On February 12, 2025, Kumar was convicted in a second case for instigating and participating in the murder of Jaswant Singh, and his son, Tarundeep Singh. The two Sikh men were assaulted by a mob of Indian National Congress supporters on Nov 1, 1984, doused with petrol and burnt alive. Kumar and his supporters also assaulted the wife and niece of Jaswant Singh who tried to protect the two men. 14 eyewitnesses testified against Kumar for his active role in leading the assault. He was given another life sentence for his role in the murders.
Kumar was acquitted in one of the cases pertaining to riots, with a Delhi court ruling that there wasn't enough evidence to establish his guilt in the murders of Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar Singh.
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