Cricket Navjot Singh Sidhu sentenced to one-year prison in the 1988 road rage case

Cricket Navjot Singh Sidhu sentenced to one-year prison in the 1988 road rage case: Former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the Supreme Court of India in a 1988 road rage case. On 27 December 1988, Sidhu allegedly hit a person named Gurnam Singh in his head which led to the latter’s death.

The verdict of the 1988 road rage case was announced by the bench of two judges comprising Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Thursday. 

“We have allowed review application on the issue of sentence,” the court said on Friday, according to legal media website livelaw.in. “In addition to fine imposed, we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by respondent 1(Sidhu).”

The incident took place in the northern city of Patiala where Navjot Singh Sidhu pulled out a man named Gurnam Singh out of his vehicle and assaulted him with his fists.

Notably, Justice Justice Kaul was a part of the bench in 2018 which reviewed a case on Navjot Singh Sidhu voluntarily hurting an individual, however, the court acquitted the former cricketer of culpable homicide.

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However, four years ago, the then cricketer was found guilty of voluntarily hurting a man named Gurman. 

Later the court reversed the judgement of the Haryana and Punjab High Court, which had found Sidhu guilty of culpable homicide in 2006 and sentenced him a three years’ imprisonment. The Supreme Court of India thought that the verdict was not based on pure evidence but conjecture.

“…the conclusion of the High Court that Gurnam Singh’s death is caused by subdural hemorrhage but not cardiac arrest, in our opinion, is not based on any evidence on record and is a pure conjecture,” Justice Chelameshwar had said, according to livelaw.in, “We, therefore, find it difficult to sustain the conviction of the first accused and set­ aside the same. Because to find a man guilty of culpable homicide, the basic fact required to be es established is that the accused caused the death. But, as noticed above, the medical evidence is absolutely uncertain regarding the cause of death of Gurnam Singh.”

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