SC reserves verdict in Sidhu road rage case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 18

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s appeal against a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict sentencing him to three-year imprisonment in a 1988 road rage case.

Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died, allegedly after being beaten up by Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu.

A Bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from senior counsel RS Cheema on behalf of Sidhu, senior counsel R Basant for Sandhu and senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Siddharth Luthra, who represented the complainant in the case. It asked all parties to file their written submissions at the earliest.

The verdict is expected before May 18, after which the Supreme Court will close for the summer vacation, or latest by June 22, when Justice Chelameswar is due to retire.

While the cricketer-turned politician has rubbished the prosecution theory, the Punjab Government defended the verdict that sentenced him to three-year jail term. The legal heirs of the complainant have demanded that Sidhu should be convicted of murder.

If the top court upholds Sidhu’s conviction and the three-year jail term or convicts him of murder and awards him life imprisonment, it would virtually end his political career as under the present election law, a lawmaker (MP/MLA) immediately loses his seat on conviction and becomes ineligible to contest elections for six years, after the end of the sentence.