1984 anti-sikh riot survivors feel Sajjan Kumar evaded justice: 'Dying in jail not enough'
After decades of waiting for justice, many said his death in jail felt like an abrupt end to a battle they had hoped would culminate in the harshest punishment.
Four decades after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's death in jail offered little solace to survivors. Ganga Kaur, 49, lost her father, two uncles, and three cousins in the violence, remembering the horrors of her father being burnt alive in front of her at the age of seven. She expressed that even if Kumar were a child, he could not forget such trauma.
Despite Kumar being sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killings and burning of a gurdwara, his death brought only a sense of an abrupt end to the long battle for justice. Popri Kaur, 75, and Atma Singh Lubhana, 66, echoed similar sentiments, stating that if Kumar had been sentenced to death, they would have felt a greater sense of closure.
The survivors lamented the decades they had spent waiting for a harsher punishment, with some even expressing a desire to see Kumar face the death penalty.
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- Sajjan Kumar, convicted for role in 1984 riots , dies hindustantimes.com
- Sajjan Kumar death: Commissions, committees that probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots thehindu.com
- Sajjan Kumar dies on day court was to hear his 1984 riots appeal indianexpress.com
