The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the plea by cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu challenging the judgment sentencing him to three years in prison in a road rage case of 1998.
Sidhu, currently a Minister in the Punjab Government, was placed in an extremely uncomfortable situation last week after the Punjab Government supported his conviction and demanded the three-year punishment to be upheld. Sidhu’s lawyers argued that the evidence on the cause of the victim’s death was “contradictory” and even the medical opinion was “vague” on which conviction cannot be arrived.
A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul reserved orders on the plea by Sidhu and his co-accused Rupinder Singh Sandhu. Sidhu, who had quit the BJP and joined the Congress days before the Punjab assembly election last year, faces a big threat to his political career if the conviction is upheld.
The case narrated by the prosecution states that Sidhu and Sandhu had parked a Gypsy car in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate Crossing in Patiala on December 27, 1988. The victim Gurnam Singh and two others were on their way to the bank to withdraw money in a Maruti car. When the victim asked Sidhu to remove the car, there was a heated exchange. Sidhu gave fist blows to Singh and later fled the crime scene. The victim was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.
Appearing for Sidhu, senior advocate RS Cheema said, “The most baffling and disturbing aspect of the case is with regard to the cause of death. The evidence brought on record is obscure, indefinite and also contradictory.” Cheema also attacked the vagueness of the medical opinion and pointed out several contradictions in it.
The state supported the conviction awarded by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and disputed the acquittal order passed by the trial judge. It submitted that the trial court erred in concluding that the victim died of cardiac arrest and not brain hemorrhage due to the impact of the blow. The victim’s counsel, on the other hand, sought enhancement of sentence, as before fleeing the crime scene, Sidhu had deliberately removed the keys of the deceased’s car due to which he could not get timely medical assistance. The bench asked the parties in the case to file their written submissions as early as possible.