1988 Road rage case: SC adjourns matter to Feb 25th

New Delhi, Feb 03: The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned a petition seeking to reconsider the quantum of punishment for cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was let off in 2018 with a fine of meagre ₹ 1,000 in a 1998 road rage case, to February 25th.

A bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, which issued a notice to the Punjab Congress chief in September 2018, will consider the review petition filed by the family members of a Patiala resident who lost his life in the road rage incident.

Sidhu had hit a 65-year-old Gurnam Singh on the head during an argument over the parking of a car in December 1988. Sidhu said he died of cardiac arrest.

The bench issued notice to Navjot Singh Sidhu in 2018 on a petition by the victim's family, and made it clear that it will only take it up on the limited issue of the quantum of punishment.

The Supreme Court had on September 12, 2018 agreed to consider a petition seeking review of its May 15, 2018 order imposing a fine of Rs 1,000 on Sidhu in the case.

However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court reversed the verdict and held them guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and gave him a three-year imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, Sidhu and Sandhu were in a Gypsy parked in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala on December 27, 1988, when the victim and two others were on their way to the bank to withdraw money. When they reached the crossing, it was alleged, Gurnam Singh, driving a Maruti car, found the Gypsy in the middle of the road and asked the occupants, Sidhu and Sandhu, to remove it. This led to heated exchanges.

Sidhu was acquitted of the murder charges by the trial court in September 1999. However, the high court had reversed the verdict and held Sidhu and Sandhu guilty under section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC in December 2006. It had sentenced them to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on them.

The apex court while allowing the appeals of Sidhu and Sandhu had said the medical evidence was "absolutely uncertain" regarding the cause of death of victim Gurnam Singh. In 2007, the apex court stayed the conviction of Sidhu and Sandhu in the case.