30 yrs on, Sidhu defends himself in road rage case

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 20

Thirty years after an elderly man died in a road rage case allegedly involving Punjab Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced hearing final arguments on his appeal challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict convicting him.

Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu were initially tried for murder but the trial court in September 1999 acquitted the cricketer-turned politician. However, the High Court reversed the verdict and held him and co-accused Rupinder Singh Sandhu guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the death of Gurnam Singh in Patiala in 1988.

The High Court sentenced them to three-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the convicts. He was given bail in 2007 by the top court, which had also stayed his conviction to enable him contest the Lok Sabha bypoll from Amritsar that was caused by his resignation following the conviction.

In his appeal filed in the top court in January 2007, Sidhu had contended that the High Court should not have reversed the trial court’s order of acquittal without there being any compelling reasons and circumstances.

Appearing for Sidhu, senior counsel RS Cheema on Tuesday questioned the prosecution theory that Gurnam died due to the injuries caused in the assault. The victim died due to cardiac arrest and not because of the alleged physical assault by the accused duo, he told a Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar.

As the Bench asked if he disputed Sidhu’s presence at the crime scene, Cheema said he would respond to it during the course of his arguments. Citing certain medical journals, he tried to convince the Bench, also comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, that a post-mortem report can never attribute a natural death to cardiac arrest.

According to the FIR in the case, Sidhu and Sandhu were allegedly present in a Gypsy parked near the Sheranwala Gate crossing on December 27, 1988m while Gurnam was on his way to a bank in a Maruti car with two others. As the deceased asked the Gypsy occupants to give them way, he was beaten up by the accusedm who fled the scene. Gurnam was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

Convicted in 2006

• The Punjab and Haryana High Court had awarded Sidhu a three-year jail term in 2006
• According to the FIR in the case, Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu were allegedly present in a Gypsy parked near the Sheranwala Gate crossing on December 27, 1988, while Gurnam was on his way to a bank in a Maruti car with two others
• As the victim asked the Gypsy occupants to give them way, he was allegedly beaten up by the accused, who fled the scene. Gurnam was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead