34 Years Later Law Catches Up With Navjot Singh Sidhu, Gets One Yr Jail In 1988 Road Rage Case

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been sentenced to one year of imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a road rage case.

He sentence came in a review petition by the family of victim Gurnam Singh against the top court's 2018 verdict, which let off Sidhu with a mere Rs 1,000 fine.

BCCL/ File

"We have allowed a review application on the issue of sentence...we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by the respondent..." an SC bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said.

Road rage incident in 1988

The case dates back to December 27, 1988, when Sidhu got into an argument with Gurnam Singh, a resident of Patiala, over a parking spot.

Sidhu and his associate, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, allegedly dragged Gurnam Singh out of his car and hit him, resulting in his death later.

BCCL

According to the prosecution, Sidhu and Sandhu were in a Gypsy parked in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala on December 27, 1988, when the victim and two others were on their way to the bank to withdraw money.

When they reached the crossing, it was alleged, that Gurnam Singh, driving a Maruti car, found the Gypsy in the middle of the road and asked the occupants, Sidhu and Sandhu, to remove it. This led to heated exchanges.

Acquitted for lack of evidence

In 1999, a sessions court in Patiala acquitted Sidhu and his associate citing lack of evidence.

However, the High Court reversed the verdict and held Sidhu and Sandhu guilty under section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC in December 2006.

AFP

It had sentenced them to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them.

SC lets Sidhu of with a fine of Rs 1,000

In May 2018 the SC had set aside the HC order convicting him of culpable homicide and held Sidhu guilty of the offence of "voluntarily causing hurt", it spared him a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

However, September 2018, the apex court had agreed to examine a review petition filed by the family members of the deceased and had issued the notice, restricted to the quantum of sentence.

Sidhu claims abuse of process

Sidhu had on March 25 told the top court that the plea seeking enlargement of the scope of notice in the matter relating to review of the sentence awarded to him was an ¡°abuse of process¡±.

BCCL

Sidhu had said as there was no evidence whatsoever that the ¡°death was caused by the single blow by him.

Following the SC order on Thursday, the former Cricketer said he "will submit to the majesty of law."

"Will submit to the majesty of law...," he said in a tweet.

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