The Supreme Court has sentenced one year of rigorous imprisonment to the former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu as he has been found guilty in the road rage case, in which a person had died; the incident ensued back in 1988.
The bench of Justices involving A. M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul announced the outcome on Thursday, May 19. The bench was reviewing its own order from 2018 regarding the case, where the court had reduced the chastisement from three years in jail to an INR 1000 fine. This time, the bench of justices disallowed the plea for imposing culpable homicide not amounting to murder charges under Section 304A of IPC on Sidhu.
According to the legal media website livelaw.in, the court, speaking about the case, on Friday, stated, “We have allowed review application on the issue of sentence. In addition to the fine imposed, we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by respondent 1(Sidhu).”
The incident came to pass on December 27, 1988, in Patiala, a city in the Punjab state. Sidhu then, dragged Gurnam, who was 65-year old then, out of his vehicle and mugged him physically with fist jolts.
According to livelaw.in, Justice Kaul was also a part of the two-judge bench in 2018, along with Justice J Chelameshwar; the bench then cleared Sidhu of culpable homicide. The court did not find the right-arm batter guilty of ‘voluntarily causing hurt” to Gurnam, the victim.
The court back then had upturned the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which in 2006 had found Sidhu accountable and penalized him for three years of custody.
Moreover, the SC bench said while asserting the ruling: “We feel there is an error apparent on the face of 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 one year.”
Will submit to the majesty of law- Navjot Singh Sidhu
Meanwhile, in response to the consequence, Sidhu a short time ago tweeted, “Will submit to the majesty of law ….”
Will submit to the majesty of law ….
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) May 19, 2022
Sidhu has represented India in 51 Tests and 136 internationals, with more than 7000 international runs in his account. The cricketer-politician was active in the international cricket circuit when the incident befell.
Written by Prachi Pisal
