Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar on Monday surrendered before a Delhi court to serve 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 December 17. It had set a deadline of December 31 for Kumar to surrender.
The high court had on December 21 declined his plea to extend the time of his surrender by a month.
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Sajjan Kumar was convicted for the killing of five members of a family in Raj Nagar in Delhi on 1 November 1984 after riots had broken out following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards.
At least 3,000 people were killed as mobs, allegedly led by Congress leaders, targeted Sikhs.
A day after the conviction, Sajjan Kumar resigned from the Congress. He later filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the conviction and the life sentence awarded by the high court.
As the judgement details and Sajjan Kumar in Tihar jail sinks in, it is time to frame new laws and seek stricter implementation of existing laws for such organised violence as happened in November 1984, Gujarat 2002 and Mumbai 2003, not to ignore the regular hate-crimes against minorities in states like Uttar Pradesh.