NEW DELHI, Mar 25:
The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its judgement on an application seeking to enlarge the scope of notice in a 33-year-old road rage case against Congress leader and former Indian cricketer, Navjot Singh Sidhu.
A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar and also comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul reserved the judgement on the review plea.
The fresh plea was filed before the Supreme Court by the victims family seeking review of its May 15, 2018, verdict, that let off Sidhu with a mere Rs 1,000 fine in a 1988 road rage case in which a Patiala resident, Gurnam Singh died.
The Punjab & Haryana High Court had convicted Sidhu for voluntarily causing hurt and sentenced him to three years in jail, but the apex court let him off with a mere fine only, after noting that the incident was more than 30 years old, there was no past enmity between accused and victim, no weapon was used by accused.
On December 27, 1988, Sidhu had allegedly beaten Gurnam Singh on his head, leading to his death in connection with a road rage case.
Earlier in response to the review petition, Sidhu had urged the Supreme Court not to punish him any further in the three-decade old case and said that review petition in the road rage case against him is without merit and ought to be dismissed.
The family of the 1988 road rage case victim had filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking modification of its earlier order in which the former Punjab MLA was acquitted.
Sidhu was acquitted in connection with the culpable homicide charges but was convicted of the offence of voluntarily causing hurt in an order given by apex court.
The Apex court had merely slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu. The court, had also acquitted Sidhu’s associate, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, in the case.
The Sessions Court Judge of Patiala had on September 22, 1999, acquitted Sidhu and his associate, due to lack of evidence in the case and giving the benefit of doubt to the former BJP leader Sidhu.
It was then challenged by the victim’s families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years imprisonment.
Sidhu then filed an appeal before the apex court challenging that order.
(UNI)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel