Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, has resigned from the party’s primary membership, according to PTI.
“I tender my resignation with immediate effect from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress in the wake of the judgement of the High Court of Delhi against me,” Kumar said in his resignation letter to party president Rahul Gandhi.
A division bench of the Delhi High Court on Monday held Kumar guilty of murder, promoting enmity between groups, and defiling public property. It reversed a lower court’s acquittal from 2013 and sentenced Kumar to life imprisonment. He must surrender in court by December 31.
The court had said that the mass killings of Sikhs in November 1984 were “crimes against humanity”.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said Kumar’s conviction is a delayed vindication of justice and that the Congress party’s cover-ups were now being defeated. Several other leaders of the ruling coalition at the Centre had also lauded the verdict, while the Congress said Kumar’s conviction should not be politicised and that the law should take its course.
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