Former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday indicated acceptance of the verdict of the Supreme Court which sentenced him to a one-year-jail term in the 1988 road rage case. "Will submit to the majesty of the law," tweeted the cricketer-turned-politician after the sentence was announced.
Earlier a top court bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul revised the Congress leader's punishment after a petition filed by the family of 65-year-old Gurnam Singh, who had died in the incident involving Sidhu.
Gurnam Singh was allegedly beaten up by Sidhu in a road rage incident in 1988. He was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.
Sidhu was acquitted by a trial court in 1999 but the high court reversed the judgment seven years later, holding him and co-accused RS Sandhu guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The duo was sentenced to three years in jail. The decision was challenged in the Supreme Court, which held the leader guilty under minor charge of causing hurt.
{{/usCountry}}Sidhu was acquitted by a trial court in 1999 but the high court reversed the judgment seven years later, holding him and co-accused RS Sandhu guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The duo was sentenced to three years in jail. The decision was challenged in the Supreme Court, which held the leader guilty under minor charge of causing hurt.
{{/usCountry}}In May 2018, the top courthad set aside the lower court order and acquitted him of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and convicted Sidhu for voluntarily causing hurt. The court imposed a ₹1,000 fine without any jail term. Three months later, the Supreme Court admitted a review petition filed by the victim's family on the quantum of sentence.