Sajjan Kumar: The Instigator

SAJJAN KUMAR (1945-2026) eluded justice for the better part of 34 years after his involvement in the massacre of Sikhs in 1984. When he died on August 20, he passed away in the arms of justice. He was “brought dead” to the hospital from jail.

Ever since the violence against Sikhs in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, allegations of Kumar’s participation in the killings never died. But he was saved for long—he remained untouched between 1984 and 2018—due to help from powerful political backers in India’s then ruling party. One investigation after another and one inquiry followed by another ensured that the wheels of justice never reached their destination. The efflux of time did the rest. Witnesses died, testimonies became unreliable as they grinded their way through the judicial system.

In the end, it was a handful of surviving witnesses who refused to bend to all kinds of pressure brought to bear on them that ensured his conviction in two cases. In one case, where he had been acquitted by a lower court, Kumar was convicted by the Delhi High Court in 2018. He was convicted in the second case last year in February. The second conviction came 41 years after his involvement in the burning alive of two Sikhs on November 1, 1984.

Kumar’s case is a cautionary tale. The delays in bringing closure to cases involving such heinous crimes casts a shadow over the otherwise celebrated judicial system.