From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: In yet another setback to cricketer-turned TV personality and politician Navjot Singh Sidhu,(58) who was sacked by the Congress as the Punjab Congress President after the party’s drubbing in the recent Assembly elections, was on Thursday imposed a one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court for the 34-year old road rage case in which one person had died.
However, a Bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul rejected the plea to impose on him culpable homicide not amounting to murder chargeunder Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
It had reserved the veerdict on March 25 on a petition to review its order letting him off with a fine of Rs 1,000 in the case. It allowed the review petition seeking enhancement of his sentence. Petitioner’s counsel Sudhir Walia welcomed the verdict.
Sidhu has been ordered to surrender before the Patiala court to serve the sentence. Earlier, the Supreme Court had let him off with a paltry fine of Rs 1,000.
He has been convicted for causing the death of one Gurnam Singh in a 1988 road rage collision.
JAKHAR JOINS BJP: In a related development, 68-year old Sunil Jakhar who was ousted as the Punjab Congress president to pave way for Navjot Sidhu, on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), five days after saying “goodbye” to the Congress when the Congress introspection session was on in Udaipur.
He was inducted into the BJP by its president Jagat Prakash Nadda at teh BJP headquarters here. He told reporters that it was not easy for him to leave the former party of 50 years as three generations of his family have served the Congress.
Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel, who quit the party on Wednesday, is also likely to join the BJP.
In its 24-page judgment, the Supreme Court summed up the incident, noting that deceased Gurnam Singh driving his Maruti car on 27.12.1988 in Patiala did not gave the right of way because of which an enraged Navjot Sidhu came out of his vehicle, pulled out the deceased from his vehicle and inflicted fist blows and even the car keys of the deceased were removed by Navjot and fled from the scene with an accomplice. Gurnam was taken to hospital in a rickshaw where the doctors declared him as dead.
The trial court acquitted both the accused in a judgment on 22.09.199, noting that the death was not caused by subdural haemorrhage but because of the sudden cardiac arrest. The state government and the complainant moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court through separate appeal. The High Court on 01.12.2006 convicted Sidhu under Section 304-II of the IPC.
The Supreme Court, however, overturned the HC ruling and fined only Rs 1,000 on Sidhu “since the incident was 30 years old at the time, there was no enmity between parties and no weapon was used.” It also factored that Sidhu was an international cricketer and a celebrity at the time of the incident and at times there was an endeavour to turn a blind eye to the violations of law committed by celebrities.
The judgment on Thursday said: “We do believe that the indulgence was not required to be shown at the stage of sentence by only imposing a sentence of fine and letting the respondent go without any imposition of sentence.
“The present case is not one where two views are possible such that
review should not be exercised. It is a case where some germane facts for
sentencing appears to have been lost sight of while imposing only a fine
on respondent No.1 and, therefore, no question of choosing between two
possible views arises.”
