Sidhu in tight spot; road rage case surfaces again during elections
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
The ghosts of 1998 road rage case surfaces again, troubling firebrand leader and Punjab Pradesh congress committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Supreme Court will hear on Thursday a petition to reconsider the quantum of punishment for cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was let off in 2018 with a fine of meagre ₹ 1,000 in a 1998 road rage case, in which Gurnam Singh, aged 65 years had died. But Sidhu said he died of cardiac arrest. The case is listed at 3:30 pm and the hearing will be done through video conferencing.
“It will be appreciated if the learned advocates on record do not seek adjournment in the matters listed before all the courts in the cause list” read the court’s message.
A bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, which issued a notice to the Punjab Congress chief in September 2018, will consider the review petition filed by the family members of a Patiala resident who lost his life in the road rage incident.
The top court had let off Sidhu saying there was no sufficient evidence to prove the harsher charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against him.The former cricketer was, however, punished under section 323 of the Indian Penal Code for voluntary causing hurt. The court also noted that no weapon was used by the accused.
Although section 323 IPC says that a person found guilty be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to Rs. 1000, or with both, the top court let off Navjot Sidhu with just the fine.
Navjot Singh Sidhu had hit a 65-year-old Gurnam Singh on the head during an argument over the parking of a car in December 1988.
Sidhu in tight spot; road rage case surfaces again during elections. Navjot Singh Sidhu is a sitting MLA from the Amritsar East seat and has filed his nomination papers from the same seat.
February 2,2022
