Known for his hard-hitting batting style, the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu preferred to play on the back-foot on Friday — a day after his own Government bowled a googly by seeking his conviction in 30-year-old road rage case.
Visibly upset, the motor-mouth Cabinet Minister refused to comment on the Punjab Government’s stand of supporting the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict convicting and awarding a three-year jail term to Sidhu in a 1988 case while describing it as his “personal matter”.
“I will not share it with anyone whether I am shocked or annoyed…No…and I will not even blame anyone for this…Whatever the verdict be, I will alone bear the burden,” said Sidhu on the sidelines of a road safety week function.
“I have shoulders strong enough to bear the weight of the case,” said Sidhu adding that he had full faith in the judiciary. “I have retained this faith for the last 30 years and will continue to retain it in future as well. I am hopeful of getting justice,” he said.
Sidhu was cautious enough to speak against his own Government’s stand in the Apex Court, saying that only the Chief Minister or the Advocate General could comment on this.
At the same time, a television channel has quoted Sidhu saying that he had described the State Government’s opposition to his acquittal plea as “like stabbing in the back”.
Notably, the Punjab Government, a day before, opposed Sidhu’s plea for acquittal in the 1988 road rage case while asking the Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul in the Supreme Court that there was no error in the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict convicting him in the case and awarding a three-year jail term.
Opposing Sidhu’s plea, the State Counsel has urged the SC to uphold the three-year jail sentence for killing an old man Gurnam Singh in Patiala.
This was the same stand the Punjab Government had taken in 2006 when Capt Amarinder was the Chief Minister and Sidhu was the BJP MP from Amritsar — leading to his conviction. Sidhu may have left the saffron brigade and joined the Congress, but this did not deter the Congress-led Punjab Government from sticking to its stand on his alleged involvement in the road rage case, which resulted in the death of a person.
Sidhu had challenged the High Court order of his conviction in the Apex Court which had granted him bail. The Court is now listening final arguments in the matter and the next hearing was scheduled for April 17.