Former Congress MP from Outer Delhi Sajjan Kumar, convicted of murder and abetment to murder in cases pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died on Thursday.Safdarjung Hospital confirmed his death. Kumar was serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail for his involvement in the riots and was rushed to the hospital after he took ill.Last year, Kumar was convicted of the murders of Jaswant Singh and his son on November 1, 1984, in what was the second conviction secured in anti-Sikh riot cases reopened and re-investigated by the Special Investigation Team instituted by the NDA government in February 2015.In the first such instance, Delhi’s Patiala House Court on November 20, 2018, pronounced the death penalty for Yashpal Malik for murdering two young Sikhs in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. This was the second death sentence  awarded in a 1984 Sikh massacre case, the first being that of Kishori Lal, who was awarded capital punishment in 1996 for the riots.Kumar was awarded life imprisonment in the murder case and was serving his sentence at Tihar Jail.Earlier, on December 17, 2018, Sajjan Kumar had been convicted of abetting the murder of five Sikhs in the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage. A day after his conviction, Kumar resigned from the primary membership of the Congress.A three-time Lok Sabha MP from Outer Delhi, Kumar, 80, was convicted by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018, and sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life.Kumar’s resignation triggered a massive backlash, with the Shiromani Akali Dal accusing the Congress at the time of protecting him for years despite his role in the Sikh killings.Sajjan Kumar remained a Congress Lok Sabha MP until as late as 2004.It was only in the 2009 general election that the party denied him a ticket, following outrage over the consideration of Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, both accused in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as candidates.Kumar was asked to sit out, but the Congress fielded his brother Ramesh Kumar instead. Ramesh Kumar was elected in 2009 but lost the 2014 general election.