New Delhi, Aug 20 Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was serving a life sentence in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died on Thursday, the day the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear his plea seeking three-week parole on medical grounds concerning his ailing wife.
The jailed former parliamentarian had approached the top court seeking parole for three weeks, citing the medical condition of his ailing wife. The plea was listed for hearing on Thursday.
According to the cause list, Kumar's plea was scheduled to be heard in the regular list but it did not come up for hearing.
Kumar, 84, was brought to Safdarjung Hospital around 11 am in an altered state of consciousness and was immediately admitted, with doctors initiating resuscitation and life-support measures.
However, he could not be saved and died at 12.30 pm, the hospital said.
Kumar, who was lodged in Tihar Jail, had a history of high blood pressure and Parkinson's disease, and had been admitted to the hospital several times in the past.
Kumar had been in jail since 2018 after the Delhi High Court sentenced him to life imprisonment in a case relating to the killing of five Sikhs and burning of a gurdwara during the 1984 riots.
The high court had on December 17, 2018, convicted Kumar in the case concerning the killings in Delhi's Palam Colony on November 1 and 2, 1984.
The 1984 riots broke out following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984 and left thousands of people dead across the country, with Delhi among the worst-affected areas.
Kumar also faced prosecution in other riot-related cases.
