Behind bars for a 1988 road rage case, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu will likely be released from the Patiala jail on January 26, as his name is on the list of prisoners for that day.
The list of names is likely to get an approval from the Punjab state cabinet, Jail Minister Harjot Bains told News18.
In May this year, the Supreme Court imposed one-year rigorous imprisonment on Sidhu in a 1988 road rage case. Soon after the apex court’s order, former Punjab Congress chief Sidhu said he “will submit to the majesty of the law.”
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul allowed the review plea filed by the victim’s family on the issue of the sentence awarded to 58-year-old Sidhu.
Though the top court had in May 2018 held Sidhu guilty of the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt” to a 65-year-old man in the case, it spared him a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000. “…we feel there is an error apparent on the face of the record. therefore, we have allowed the review application on the issue of sentence.
In addition to the fine imposed, we consider it appropriate to impose a sentence of imprisonment for a period of one year,” the bench said while pronouncing the verdict.
The hearing in the case had continued for over 33 years, from sessions court in Patiala to the Supreme Court.
Sidhu was taken for medical examination after the surrender and was lodged in Patiala jail. Surinder Dalla, media advisor to Sidhu, said, “He (Navjot Singh Sidhu) has surrendered himself before Chief Judicial Magistrate. He is under judicial custody. Medical examination and other legal procedures will be adopted.”
What is the case against Navjot Singh Sidhu?
In 1988, Sidhu was accused in a road rage case in which Gurnam Singh from Patiala had died.
According to the prosecution in the case, Sidhu and his aide Rupinder Singh 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. According to reports, Sidhu had thrashed and hit Gurnam Singh on his head which later led to his death.
Sidhu was acquitted of murder charges by the Sessions Court of Patiala in September 1999. However, the Punjab and Haryana 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. It had sentenced them to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them. Sidhu then challenged the high court’s order in the Supreme Court.
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