Lalit Maken was a member of Parliament of India, a political leader of Indian National Congress and a labour union leader. Maken was the son-in-law of late President of India Mr. Shankar Dayal Sharma.
In the year of 1984, He was elected to the Loksabha, a directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India from South Delhi of India. He was a metropolitan Councillor prior to his election to Parliament of India.
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Lalit Maken was alleged to be involved in the killings of innocent Sikhs during 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. In a 31-page booklet titled 'Who Are The Guilty', People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) listed 227 people who led the mobs, which killed up to 3,000 Sikhs over three days. Lalit Maken's name was third on the list.[1] However his daughter Avantika does not believe that her father was involved in the anti Sikh pogrom, she believe that his father was a secular man and he was a threat to many established Congress leaders[2]
Lalit Maken and his wife Gitanjali, the daughter of former president Shankar Dayal Sharma, were gunned down by Khalistani militants[3] Harjinder Singh Jinda, Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Mr. Ranjit Singh Gill, alias Kukki outside Mr. Maken's Kirti Nagar residence in West Delhi on July 31, 1985[4] Lalit Maken was gunned down,[4] when he was moving towards his car parked across the road from his house in Kirti Nagar, New Delhi. All three assailants continued firing even as Maken ran towards his house for cover. Maken's wife Geetanjali and a visitor, Balkishan, were also caught in the firing. The assailants escaped on their scooters.[1]Lalit Maken,Mrs Gitanjali Maken and Balkishen were taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The postmortem examination's were conducted by a team of doctors headed by Dr.T D Dogra.[9]
India later arrested Sukhdev Singh Sukha in the year of 1986 and Harjinder Singh Jinda in the year of 1987. Both of them were later sentenced to death for the murder of Indian army general Arun Shridhar Vaidya (architect of Operation Bluestar) and on October 9, 1992, they were hanged in pune Jail in Indian state of Maharashtra.[5] As per Indian request, Ranjit Singh "Gill" was arrested by Interpol in New Jersey, USA on May 14, 1987, a federal magistrate approved his extradition on February 6, 1988[6] and he was deported back to India in February 2000 after lengthy legal cases and was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 24, 2003. Finally his life sentence was commuted on May 20, 2009.[3]
Minister of State Of Urban Development, Ajay Maken is his nephew. His only child (daughter) Avantika Maken is married to Ashok Tanwar, Ex-President of Indian Youth Congress and MP. Both Ajay Maken and Avantika Maken repeatedly pleaded for the release of Lalit Maken’s alleged killer Ranjit Singh Gill alias Kukki.[2][7][8]