Will Submit to Majesty of Law, Says Sidhu as SC Sends Him to One Year in Jail in 1988 Road Rage Case

The Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu to one year in jail in the 1988 road rage case.

The Supreme Court took up the case for review in February this year to decide whether Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu should face charges of a more serious nature in the 34-year-old road rage case.

Soon after the sentence by Supreme Court on Thursday, Navjot Singh Sidhu took to Twitter and said, “Will submit to the majesty of law ….”.

https://twitter.com/sherryontopp/status/1527219382799126528?s=21&t=N5OB7wj9yiNEqdLccUua-A

The victim’s family had filed a review petition seeking punishment for an offence of more serious category than causing hurt leading to enhancement of punishment. Sidhu, however, had urged the SC not to punish him with a jail term.

On this, Navjot Singh Sidhu had told the Supreme Court in March this year that the plea seeking enlargement of the scope of notice in the matter relating to review of the sentence awarded to him in the road rage case is an “abuse of process”.

“It is an extraordinary case in the negative sense which does not merit your lordship’s entertainment because it has potential to be subversive of the basic foundations of criminal justice and therefore, an abuse of process,” senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Sidhu, told the bench during the arguments.

Though the apex court had in May 2018 held Sidhu guilty of the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt” to a 65-year-old man in the case, it spared him a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

In 1988, Sidhu was an accused in a road rage case in which Gurnam Singh from Patiala had died. In May 2018, the SC let Sidhu off by imposing a fine of Rs 1,000.

This was after the Punjab and Haryana High Court convicted him of voluntarily causing harm and sentenced him to three years in jail. The SC exonerated him, noting that the case was over 30 years old, and that the accused did not use any weapon.

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