Navjot Singh Sidhu gets 1 year jail in 1988 road rage case: Timeline of events

New Delhi, May 19: The Supreme Court on Thursday has imposed one year of rigorous imprisonment on former Punjab Congress president, Navjot Singh Sidhu in a 1988 road rage case in which Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died.

The court had earlier let him off with a fine of Rs 1,000. He will be taken into custody to serve out his one year sentence. The Bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul rejected the plea for fastening culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on Sidhu.

Following is the chronology relating of events:

*Dec 27, 1988: FIR lodged against Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rupinder Sandhu for allegedly beating a man up after he asked him to remove his car from the middle of a road in Patiala. The man died in hospital.

*Jul 14, 1989: Punjab police files charge sheet under section 304 of IPC only against Sandhu.

*Jul 22: A separate complaint of murder filed against both Sidhu and Sandhu.

*Sep 25, 1990: Trial court in Patiala frames charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Sandhu.

*Aug 30, 1993: Sessions court exercises its power under section 319 of CrPC (adding additional accused) and summons Sidhu to stand trial.

*Sep 22, 1999: Trial Court acquits Sidhu of the murder charges.

*Dec 1, 2006: Punjab and Haryana HC reverses trial court verdict and convicts Sidhu and Sandhu of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentences them to three-year jail with a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.

*Jan 23, 2007: SC stays conviction of Sidhu and co-accused, paving the way for him to contest the by-poll for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

*Apr 12, 2018: The Amarinder Singh-led Congress government favours in SC the high court's judgement convicting and awarding the three-year jail term to Sidhu.

*Apr 18: SC reserves verdict on appeals of Sidhu and Sandhu against the HC verdict.

*May 15: SC spares Sidhu from jail term, convicts him for the offence of volunatrily causing hurt and imposes a fine of Rs 1,000.

*May 19: SC has imposed one year rigours imprisonment on former Punjab Congress president, Navjot Singh Sidhu in the three decade old assault case in which a person had died.