New Delhi, May 19 (LAB) The Supreme Court today sentenced former cricketer and TV artist Navjot Singh Sidhu to one-year rigorous imprisonment in connection with a 1988 road rage case.
A bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul while hearing the revision petition against an order passed by them earlier in which they had let off Sidhu, enhanced the punishment to one-year imprisonment.
The Court after hearing the review petition filed by the kin of Gurnam Singh, who lost his life in the incident, decided to look into the matter again. The same bench had in its 2018 order let off Sidhu with just a fine of Rs 1000.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had convicted Sidhu of culpable homicide and sentenced him to a three-year jail term.
On May 15, 2018, The Supreme Court bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, had set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order and held Siddhu guilty only of the offense under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and imposed the fine. The bench said that Sidhu “cannot be held responsible for causing the death of Gurnam Singh.”
Seeking review of this order, the family of the victim said there was an “error apparent on the face of the record” in the judgment holding him guilty only for causing hurt.
The Supreme Court then reviewed its previous order and after hearing the arguments from both sides directed Sidhu to undergo one-year imprisonment. This is the maximum possible punishment under Section 323 of the IPC which can be awarded to him.
The Supreme court directed the Punjab police to take Sidhu into custody. Sidhu was earlier let off with a fine of Rs 1,000.
The case was registered against the former cricketer on December 27, 1988, when Sidhu had beaten Gurnam Singh on his head, leading to the latter’s death.
Sidhu had opposed the plea and said there was no evidence that the victim’s death was caused by a single blow in the road rage case. Sidhu said that the application was devoid of any merits and ought to be dismissed.
In 1999, the Patiala session court acquitted Sidhu due to the lack of evidence and giving him a benefit of the doubt.
A petition was filed challenging this verdict. The Punjab and Haryana High court convicted him of culpable homicide and sentenced Sidhu to three years in jail.
In 2018, the cricketer approached the Supreme Court against the order. The Supreme Court set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order and imposed a fine of Rs 1000 only.
Siddhu was acquitted in connection with a homicide charge but was convicted for voluntarily causing hurt. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu and had acquitted his associate Rupinder Singh Sidhu in the case./LAB/SNG/