Navjot Sidhu let off by Supreme Court with fine of Rs 1,000 in road rage case

Source – indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: In a big relief to cricketer-turned-politician and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Supreme Court on Tuesday let him off with a fine of Rs 1,000 in a 1998 road rage case in which one person died, saying there was no evidence to prove that the death was caused by the single blow he dealt.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul set aside the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana high court which had convicted Sidhu for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and had awarded three years’ jail.

On December 27, 1988, Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu had got into an argument with one Gurnam Singh over parking space in Patiala. The duo allegedly dragged Singh out of his car and hit him. Singh later died. A sessions court acquitted Sidhu and Sandhu in 1999 but the order was quashed by the HC, which convicted them and awarded them a three-year jail term in 2006. The two approached the SC which stayed their conviction.

After examining all evidence, including medical reports, the apex court concluded that Sandhu was wrongly convicted in the case and acquitted him. The court, however, convicted Sidhu under Section 323 of Indian Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt.

Although Section 323 says that a person shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to Rs 1,000, or with both, the apex court, let Sidhu off with only fine. “In the circumstances of the case having regard to the facts that (i) the incident is 30 years old; (ii) there is no past enmity between the accused and the deceased; (iii) no weapon was used by the accused; and (iv) the background in which it happened, we are of the opinion, a punishment of imposition of fine of Rs 1000 would meet the ends of justice in this case,” the court said.

The court noted that the only fact established on evidence is that Sidhu gave a single fist blow on the head of the deceased but the medical evidence was absolutely uncertain regarding the cause of death.