In a 1988 road rage case, the Supreme Court sentenced Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu to one year in prison, after he was let off with a meagre ₹1,000 fine in 2018.
On the basis of a petition filed by the family of Gurnam Singh, 65, who died in a road rage incident involving former cricketer Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu, a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul increased Sidhu’s sentence under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code. The maximum penalty under Section 323 of the IPC (intentionally causing harm) is a year in prison or a ₹1,000 fine.
The court is not inclined to convert Sidhu’s conviction to a more serious charge, but it accepts the plea that the Congress leader’s punishment be increased, according to the operative part of the verdict.
“We sentence the respondent to one year of solitary confinement. The bench ordered that he be taken into custody to serve out his sentence.
Gurnam Singh was allegedly beaten up by Sidhu in a road rage incident in December 1988, according to the prosecution. The victim was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
A trial court acquitted Sidhu in September 1999, but the Punjab and Haryana high court overturned the decision in December 2006. Sidhu and co-accused Sandhu were found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder by the high court and sentenced to three years in prison.
They appealed to the Supreme Court, which found Sidhu guilty of the minor charge of causing harm while exonerating Sandhu of all charges in May 2018.
