Indian politician convicted in anti-Sikh riots case

Riots in 1984 claimed 3,000 lives in India following assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

Thmad Adil

CHANDIGARH, India

A court in India on Monday convicted a politician in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the country.

Sajjan Kumar, a leader of the opposition Congress party was sentenced to life imprisonment by the High Court in capital New Delhi, according to a copy of the verdict available with Anadolu Agency.

The riots in retaliation to the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards left nearly 3,000 people dead.

On Monday, a bench comprising Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel set aside an earlier court order that had acquitted Kumar in the case. The case was related to the killing of five people.

In 2013, the court had convicted five others in the case but acquitted Kumar. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), however, filed an appeal challenging the acquittal.