New Delhi: Ex Punjab Congress Pradesh Adhiyaksh, Navjot Singh Sidhu today requested a few more weeks to surrender on health grounds, a day after the Supreme Court sentenced him to one year imprisonment in a road-rage incident in which a man was killed 34 years ago.
Navjot Singh Sidhu’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, said “was told by Justice AM khanwilkar to approach the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana”. Reports suggest, he would surrender at a court in Punjab’s Patiala today.
Yesterday the apex Court ordered one-year “rigorous imprisonment” for the cricketer-turned-politician, who recently quit as Punjab Congress chief after his party’s defeat in the state election.
Replying to Mr Sidhu’s request for time, the counsel representing Punjab said: “34 years does not mean the crime dies”. Now the judgment is pronounced, they want three-four weeks again.”To which Singhvi’s reply was “I am saying I will surrender. It’s your discretion to consider.””Place a formal application and we will see. File this and mention it before the Chief Justice’s court, then we will see”, Justice Khanwilkar said.
The Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mr Sidhu to pay a fine of ₹ 1,000 rupees for voluntarily hurting a person. However, the court, reviewing its own order, said “It considered it “appropriate” to jail Mr Sidhu, saying “some aggravated culpability” must be attached if a person dies”.
The family of a man who died after a brawl with Mr Sidhu and his friend in 1988 had asked for a harsher sentence and a review of a 2018 order of the Supreme Court acquitting him of murder.
1998 Road Rage Case
On December 27, 1988, Mr Sidhu got into an argument with Gurnam Singh, a resident of Patiala, over a parking spot. Mr Sidhu and his friend, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, allegedly dragged Gurnam Singh out of his car and hit him. He later died in hospital. An eyewitness accused Sidhu of killing Gurnam Singh with a blow to the head.
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