‘There was fire everywhere’: 1984 riot survivors recall the horror after Sajjan Kumar’s death

For Harpal Singh, the news of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar’s death on Thursday (August 20, 2026) brought back traumatic memories from over four decades ago.

“There was fire everywhere. He burnt people alive. He should have been killed long back,” said Mr. Singh, a 60-year-old car driver, recalling the violence he witnessed Kumar inflict on the Sikh community.

Mr. Singh had arrived in Delhi from Amritsar barely a month before the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, hoping to make a living in the city. He was 15. “I had left my home behind in the hope of making money. I was learning to drive and living at a relative’s house in Lajpat Nagar. When the attacks started, all I could see was fire everywhere,” he recalled.

‘Should have got death sentence’

Mr. Singh says he escaped the violence because he did not wear a turban and had no beard. But he watched other Sikh men being attacked. “They put burning rubber tyres around the necks of Sikh men in front of my eyes. I saw people from my own community screaming, crying, and burning. That memory terrorises me even today,” he said. His turbaned relatives were forced to hide in a dark room down an alley to escape the mobs.

For Mr. Singh, Kumar’s death, after decades of waiting for accountability, brought a sense of relief. “He should have been given the death sentence but his death is a relief and, to an extent, justice to those who were killed,” he said.

He is among several Delhi residents who have spent four decades carrying memories of the violence — of loved ones killed, homes burnt, and communities hunted down — while waiting for justice.

‘Burnt alive’

Anand Banerjee, another eyewitness, recalled the violence beginning in Kidwai Nagar, a short distance from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was declared dead after being shot on October 31, 1984.

“Right where I lived, a Sikh man’s general store was brought down. After that, the rioters attacked the colony gurdwara and burnt it down. Fire and smoke were everywhere,” he said.

“The violence did not stop there. Two buses parked outside the market were also set on fire, killing and injuring people. Many were burnt alive,” Mr. Banerjee recalled.

He also remembers Sikh colleagues desperately seeking shelter with others as mobs moved through their neighbourhoods. “Many later returned to work without their turbans, with their hair cut, just to hide their identities and save their lives,” he said.

Elusive justice

For residents of areas such as Palam, Kalyanpuri, Hari Nagar, and Jhungpura, the memories of those days remain deeply etched in their minds. Among them is Jagdish Kaur, whose testimony and appeal were central to the case in which the Delhi High Court convicted Kumar in 2018.

“Justice has been evasive for the victims of the violence. Police, army, all were party to the crime. While Sajjan Kumar was brought to jail, no one ever asked about the policemen who were one with the mobs,” Ms. Kaur said.

Now living in Amritsar with her extended family, Ms. Kaur was living in Palam’s Raj Nagar in 1984. The events of November 1 remain vivid.

‘SHO was part of the mob’

Her husband, Kehar Singh, a gun-fitter in the Army, was beaten to death with sticks and rods inside their home by a mob. Her 18-year-old son, Gurpeet Singh, tried to flee but was caught by another mob and burnt alive. One cousin met a similar fate, while two others disappeared.

Ms. Kaur said that when she went to the police station to lodge a complaint, she heard Kumar trying to instigate a mob against Sikhs and Hindus who had sheltered Sikhs. She also recalled the SHO asking the mob, “Kitne murge bhun gaye? [How many chickens got roasted?]”

“I could not expect the police to help me when the SHO himself was party to the mob. Sajjan Kumar was with the SHO even the next day when I went to get the complaint registered,” she said.

The FIR was registered on November 3, she said. By then, the bodies of her husband and son had remained at her home for three days.

Ms. Kaur said she never backed down despite what she described as attempts to settle the matter. She alleged that Kumar had tried to silence her by offering ₹3 crore, along with land in Chandigarh.

Mixed emotions

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Harmeet Singh Kalka said Kumar’s death had evoked mixed emotions among victim families and the Sikh community.

“On the one hand, those who have awaited justice for decades feel a measure of relief that a prominent accused in the case is no longer alive; on the other, there remains a deep sense of anguish that he did not live to face the ultimate punishment for his crimes,” he said.

Published – August 20, 2026 09:31 pm IST