Supreme Court sentences Navjot Sidhu to one-year rigorous imprisonment
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday imposed one-year rigorous imprisonment on former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu in a three-decade old assault case in which a person had died.
On December 27, 1988, Sidhu had allegedly hit one Gurnam Singh on his head, leading to his death.
However, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul rejected the plea for imposing culpable homicide not amounting murder charge under Section 304A of IPC on Sidhu.
Earlier, the Congress leader was acquitted in connection with the culpable homicide charges but was convicted of the offence of voluntarily causing hurt. The court had slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu and had also acquitted Sidhu’s associate, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, in the case.
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 a lack of evidence in the case and giving the benefit of the doubt.
It was then challenged by the victim’s families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years imprisonment. Sidhu then filed an appeal before the apex court challenging this order.
