Navjot Singh Sidhu urges SC to dismiss road rage case review plea, says ‘it’s not maintainable’

NEW DELHI: Former cricketer and politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the review plea in the 33-year-old road rage case, saying it’s not maintainable now. Sidhu, in his reply to the review petition, said “the review petition is not maintainable, and the incident happened 33 years ago.” 

Urging the Supreme Court to dismiss the review petition in the road rage case against him, Sidhu also cited his “impeccable reputation and clean antecedents” for consideration and pleaded with the Supreme Court not to alter his sentence in the case.

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu urges Supreme Court to dismiss review petition in the road rage case against him. Sidhu, in reply to review petition, says the review petition is not maintainable and the incident happened 33 years ago. pic.twitter.com/jNn4o8SYUj — ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2022

The Supreme Court is due to consider today the plea seeking review of the sentence awarded by it to cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in an over 32-year-old road rage case.

Sidhu is presently the Punjab Congress President and the state went to polls on February 20.

The apex court had on May 15, 2018, set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order convicting Sidhu of culpable homicide and awarding him a three-year jail term in the case, but had held him guilty of causing hurt to a senior citizen.

Though the top court had held Sidhu guilty of the offence of "voluntarily causing hurt" to a 65-year-old man, it spared him of a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000. Section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code entails a maximum jail term of up to one year or with a fine which may extend to Rs 1,000 or both.

The top court had also acquitted Sidhu's aide Rupinder Singh Sandhu of all charges saying there was no trustworthy evidence regarding his presence along with Sidhu at the time of the offence in December 1988.

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 had stayed the conviction of Sidhu and Sandhu in the case.