Supreme Court holds Navjot Singh Sidhu guilty in road rage case

NEW DELHI: Cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday got big relief from the Supreme Court as it finds him guilty of only voluntarily causing hurt under section 323 IPC in 1988 road rage case and acquits him of culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge in the 1988 road rage case.

According to section 323 of Indian Penal Code whosoever voluntarily causes hurt, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.

The court found him guilty of causing simple injury and imposed a fine without any jail term. This means that he will remain a MLA and a Minister.A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar only imposes fine on Sidhu and also acquits co-accused Rupinder Singh Sandhu.

The order came on Punjab Tourism Minister Navjot Singh



Sidhu’s appeal against a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict sentencing him to three-year imprisonment in a road rage case.

According to the prosecution, Sidhu and Sandhu were allegedly present in a Gypsy parked near Sheranwala Gate Crossing on December 27, 1988, while Gurnam Singh was on his way to a bank in a Maruti car with two others. As Gurnam asked the Gypsy occupants to give them way, the duo beat him up and fled the scene. Gurnam was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead.

Sidhu and Sandhu were initially tried for murder but the trial court in September 1999 acquitted the cricketer-turned politician. However, the high court held them guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the death of Gurnam Singh in Patiala 1988 and gave them a three-year jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the convicts