According to sources, Congress politician Navjot Singh Sidhu is set to surrender before a Patiala court today after the Supreme Court sentenced him to one year in prison in a 34-year-old road rage case.
This morning, a few Congress leaders and supporters showed up at the home of the party’s former Punjab state chairman, Navjot Singh Sidhu. In a letter to party supporters on Thursday night, Patiala District Congress Committee president Narinder Pal Lali stated that Navjot Singh Sidhu would be in the court at 10 AM. He asked party followers to arrive at the court complex by 9:30 AM. His wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu arrived at the Patiala residence on Thursday night.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India sentenced Sidhu to one year in jail for a 1987 road rage case. Following a review plea filed by the family of Gurnam Singh, the victim who died in the 1988 event, the Supreme Court reversed its 2018 ruling lowering Sidhu’s penalties in the case.
In 2018, a Supreme Court bench of Justice J Chelameshwar (retired) and Justice SK Kaul concluded that Sidhu’s offence did not amount to Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to a fine of Rs 1000, lowering the punishment from three years imprisonment given by the High Court. The court had reserved its verdict in the case in March this year.
Saying that Sidhu had knowingly caused the death, the bench said, “The material on record leads us to the only possible conclusion that we can reach that the first accused voluntarily caused hurt to Gurnam Singh punishable under Section 323 IPC”.
Sidhu and one of his friends reportedly attacked Patiala resident Gurnam Singh on December 27, 1988, for allegedly obstructing his vehicle. Gurnam Singh was confirmed dead while being brought to a hospital. In this case, Sidhu and his companion Rupinder Singh Sandhu were arrested.