Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday enhanced the sentence of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu to one-year imprisonment In the 1988 road rage case in which a man had died.
A Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar – which had on March 25 reserved its verdict on a petition seeking review of its order letting off Sidhu with a fine of Rs 1,000 in the case – allowed the review petition seeking enhancement of his sentence.
The court had earlier let him off with a fine of Rs 1,000. He will be taken into custody to serve out his one year sentence. The Bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul rejected the plea for fastening culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on Sidhu, the court had reserved the order on an application seeking to enlarge the scope of notice in a road rage case against Navjot Singh Sidhu. The application was also filed in an ongoing review petition. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has opposed the plea seeking to enlarge the scope of the road rage case against him citing earlier order of the apex court which held that there was no evidence that the death of the victim was caused by a single blow in the road rage case. Sidhu’s submission came while replying to an application filed by family members of the victim seeking to enlarge the scope of notice in the review petition in the road rage case against him.
Sidhu, responding to the application filed by the petitioner seeking to enlarge the scope of notice, submitted that the application was devoid of any merits and ought to be dismissed. The Congress leader was acquitted in connection with the culpable homicide charges but was convicted of the offence of voluntarily causing hurt. The court had slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu and had also acquitted Sidhu’s associate, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, in the case. The case has gone through Session Court, High court and Supreme Court.
The Sessions Court Judge of Patiala had on September 22, 1999, acquitted Sidhu and his associate, due to a lack of evidence in the case and giving the benefit of the doubt. It was then challenged by the victim’s families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years imprisonment. Sidhu then filed an appeal before the apex court challenging this order. On December 27, 1988, Sidhu allegedly beat Gurnam Singh on his head, leading to his death.
