New Delhi, Jan 14 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the CBI on former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's appeal challenging the Delhi High Court verdict sentencing him to life imprisonment following his conviction in one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjay Krishan Kaul sought a response from the Central Bureau of Investigation on Kumar's plea seeking suspension of the sentence while challenging his conviction.

Thirty-four years after the gruesome killings, the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018 convicted and sentenced Sajjan Kumar to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life, holding that the violence was a "crime against humanity" engineered by politicians with assistance from police.

The High Court had sentenced Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment setting aside his acquittal along with five others saying the "criminals" escaped prosecution and punishment for over two decades.

Sajjan Kumar in his appeal has contended that the High Court verdict was given on "erroneous" grounds.

Sajjan Kumar was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the killings of Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment by a mob.

The five victims belonged to one family.

The 1984 riots took place in the wake of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards.