New Delhi: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sindhu, sentenced to prison for a year in a 1988 road rage case, surrendered before a Patiala court on Friday.
Earlier in the day, the cricketer-turned-politician had sought a week’s time to surrender – “to settle his medical issues” – after the Supreme Court on Thursday handed down the one-year sentence.
The apex court’s punishment came for a road rage case three decades ago that killed an elderly man.
In 2018, the top court had only fined the Congress leader Rs 1,000 for the offence.
A review petition was then filed by the victim Gurnam Singh’s family, challenging the verdict.
While allowing the petition, the apex court on Thursday enhanced Sidhu’s punishment to a year in jail.
A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul read out the operative part of the verdict Thursday: “We have allowed review application on the issue of sentence. In addition to the fine imposed, we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by respondent 1 (Sidhu).”
The incident occurred on 27 December, 1988 at a traffic signal in Patiala when an altercation led Sidhu to pull out Gurnam Singh from his vehicle and assault him.
In 2006, the Punjab and Haryana High Court concluded that the cause of Gurnam Singh’s death was subdural haemorrhage due to the assault. The court convicted Sidhu under Section 304 II – culpable offence not amounting to murder – and handed him a jail term of three years.
In May 2018, however, a Supreme Court bench reduced that punishment, saying the cause of death was not certain. Therefore, the punishment for culpable homicide could not be sustained, the top court said, finding Sidhu guilty only of “voluntarily causing hurt” under Section 323.
The punishment for this offence is a jail term of one year or a fine of Rs 1,000. Sidhu was let off with the fine.
Gurnam Singh’s family then challenged the judgement, leading to Thursday’s enhanced sentence.
The Supreme Court said Thursday that a few “material aspects” which seemed to have been missed at the stage of sentencing include Sidhu’s “physical fitness” as he was an international cricketer, who was “tall and well-built and aware of the force of a blow that even his hand would carry”.
“The blow was not inflicted on a person identically physically placed but a 65-year-old person, more than double his (Sidhu’s) age,” the court observed, adding that “the hand can also be a weapon by itself where say a boxer, a wrestler or a cricketer or an extremely physically fit person inflicts the same”.
Sidhu was sent to jail on 11 January 2007 in connection with the case, but granted bail the very next day.
Also read: Sidhu gets year in jail for 1988 road rage, SC cites young cricketer’s ‘edge’ over elderly victim