Supreme Court to pronounce verdict in road rage case against Sidhu on Tuesday

The former cricketers was guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

May 14, 2018 08:45 pm | Updated 09:35 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

Navjot Singh Sidhu. File

Navjot Singh Sidhu. File

The Supreme Court is scheduled on Tuesday to pronounce its verdict on an appeal filed by Punjab Tourism Minister and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu against a State High Court judgment sentencing him to three years' imprisonment in a 30-year-old road rage case which resulted in the death of a man.

A Bench of Justices Jasti Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul had reserved the case for judgment on April 18.

Mr. Sidhu, through his counsel and senior advocate R.S. Cheema, argued that the medical opinion on the cause of death of the victim, Gurnam Singh, was “vague“.

Mr. Cheema discussed the evidence brought on record regarding the cause of death of the victim and extensively dealt with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The arguments saw a twist when the State prosecution, on the opposite side, also agreed with the High Court’s conviction and sentence for the Tourism Minister in the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government.

The prosecution version said Mr. Sidhu and Rupinder Singh Sandhu, represented by senior counsel R.Basant and advocate Karthik Ashok, were allegedly in a Gypsy parked on the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala on December 27, 1988.

The victim and two others were on their way to the bank to withdraw money. It was alleged that when they had reached the crossing, 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.

The police had claimed that Mr. Singh was beaten up by Mr. Sidhu, who later fled the crime scene. The victim was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

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