HC verdict convicting minister Navjot Singh Sidhu correct, Punjab govt tells SC

The Supreme Court is hearing Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s submission against the Punjab and Haryana high court’s 2006 verdict that held him guilty for a road rage incident that left one person dead.

The Punjab government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the Punjab and Haryana high court was correct in convicting its tourism and culture minister Navjot Singh Sidhu in a 30-year-old road rage case.

Counsel for Punjab government told a bench of justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul that Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died after Sidhu punched him.

Read | Thirty years on, final arguments in Navjot Singh Sidhu road rage case begin in SC

The government said the trial court was wrong in its finding that Singh had died of cardiac arrest and not brain haemorrhage.

“There is not a single evidence that suggest that the cause of death was cardiac arrest and not brain haemorrhage. The trial court verdict was rightly set aside by the high court. Accused A1 (Navjot Singh Sidhu) had given fiesty blow to deceased Gurnam Singh leading to his death through brain haemorrhage,” the state government counsel told the bench.

(This story has not been modified from its original version.)