Sultanpuri

Sultanpuri is a resettlement colony in Delhi. In November 1984, in the Tesra Ghallughara, it was, with Mangolpuri and Trilokpuri, one of the colonies where the killing of Sikhs in the capital was worst, and the People's Union for Democratic Rights says the worst sufferers were the poorest, among them Labana and Sikligar Sikhs.

Key moments

• 1 November 1984: affidavits given to the Misra Commission describe Congress meetings that morning. Moti Singh says a meeting began at 8:30 am, and Prem Kaur puts one of 150 to 200 people in the B-2 park at 8:45 am. Jatan Kaur and Prem Kaur place the local MP, Sajjan Kumar, at the park and quote him telling the crowd to kill and burn Sikhs. Moti Singh says Kumar offered Rs 5,000 for killing two named men and Rs 1,000 a head for other Sikhs. The affidavits name the station house officer, Bhatti, as shooting Roshan Singh, and say the gurdwara at F2 was set alight in the presence of police. The attacks went on for two days.
• The toll is unsettled. The Tribune's report on the 2002 trial said about 50 Sikhs were killed in Sultanpuri on 1 November. The archive names about 30 victims and gives no total, and one widow, Rajani Devi, testified that 400 Sikhs were killed in the Sultanpuri area. Across Delhi the Ahuja committee counted 2,733 deaths.
• Bibi Bhagwani lost her sons Hoshiar Singh, 21, and Mohan Singh, 18, in Sultanpuri. She was a witness against Kumar and died on 27 July 2013, with no trial against him having taken place in 29 years.
• 2002 to 2013: two FIRs, one from 1984 and one filed by the CBI in 1990, were tried together, and Kumar denied leading the mob. In July 2010 charges were framed against five accused including Kumar for six murders, and on 17 July 2013 the Delhi High Court dismissed his plea against them.
• 20 September 2023: a Delhi court gave Kumar the benefit of the doubt and acquitted him of the killing of Surjit Singh in Sultanpuri. Brahmanand Gupta and Ved Prakash Pial were acquitted too. Sukhbir Singh Badal called the verdict "painful and shocking in the extreme".

The record: the Nanavati Commission found "credible material" that Kumar was probably involved as witnesses alleged, with five testimonies naming him, more than any other accused. He was convicted for killings elsewhere in Delhi: life imprisonment from the High Court on 17 December 2018 for the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a gurdwara, and a second life term in February 2025 for the murder of two Sikh men. The sources we opened report no conviction in a Sultanpuri case. He died at 80 in Safdarjung Hospital on 20 August 2026, while serving life sentences in Tihar.