Top Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu gets 1-year jail term in 1988 road rage case

In a breaking development, the Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced senior Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu to one year of rigorous imprisonment in the three-decade-old road rage case. Sidhu will now be taken into custody to serve the sentence.

A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and SK Kaul had reserved its order on an application seeking to enlarge the scope of notice in the 1988 case against Sidhu. The court today ordered a one-year jail sentence for Sidhu, but rejected a plea for fastening culpable homicide against the cricketer-turned-politician.

The apex court had on May 15, 2018, set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order awarding him a three-year jail term in the case, but held him guilty of causing hurt to a senior citizen. Holding Sidhu guilty of "voluntarily causing harm" to the victim, the Supreme Court imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

Later in September 2018, the court agreed to examine a review petition filed by the family members of the deceased and issued notice to Sidhu on it.

1988 Road Rage case against Sidhu

On December 27, 1988, Navjot Singh Sidhu allegedly hit one Gurnam Singh on his head, leading to his death. The family of the victim had filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking a modification of its previous order which gave acquittal to the former Punjab MLA.

Since 1988, the case has gone through Session Court, High court, and Supreme Court. The Sessions Court Judge of Patiala had on September 22, 1999, acquitted Sidhu and his associate, due to lack of evidence and giving the benefit of the doubt.

The order was challenged by the victim's families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years imprisonment. Sidhu then filed an appeal before the apex court challenging this order.