Sajjan Kumar, 73, is a former Lok Sabha MP. He represented the Outer Delhi constituency thrice.

Sajjan Kumar, a former Congress leader convicted in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and sentenced to life in prison, finally surrendered today in a Delhi court.

He surrendered before Metropolitan Magistrate Aditi Garg who directed that Kumar be lodged in Mandoli jail in northeast Delhi.

The court rejected Sajjan Kumar's petition to be lodged in the high-security Tihar jail, but allowed his plea for security and directed the police to take him to the prison in a separate vehicle.

On December 17, the Delhi High Court reversed Kumar's acquittal and described the riots as "carnage of unbelievable proportions". On December 21, it rejected Kumar's plea to extend the deadline for surrender.

Sajjan Kumar's lawyer said options were running out for him as the Supreme Court wasn't likely to grant his appeal against the high court verdict a hearing during the vacation, which ends on January 1. "We will comply with the high court's judgment," Kumar's counsel Anil Kumar Sharma told the Press Trust of India.

The case in which Sajjan Kumar was convicted and sentenced is related to the killing of five Sikhs in Raj Nagar part I area in Palam Colony in South West Delhi on November 1-2, 1984, and the burning down of a gurdwara in Raj Nagar part II. The riots broke out after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

Two other 1984 anti-Sikh riots convicts, Kishan Khokhar and Mahender Yadav, surrendered today to serve a 10-year jail term.

Sajjan Kumar, 73, is a former Lok Sabha MP. He represented the Outer Delhi constituency thrice.

He resigned from the Congress on December 18, the day after the Delhi High Court reversed his acquittal.