Supreme Court to reconsider fine punishment to Sidhu in road-rage case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to reconsider the quantum of punishment to former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu as he had been let off with a fine of just Rs 1000 for causing simple injury in a 30yearold roadrage caseJustice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul admitted a review petition filed by a son of deceased Gurnam Singh and issued a notice to Sidhu now a Punjab Cabinet MinisterPermission to file the review petition is granted issue notice restricted to quantum of sentence qua respondent no 1 Navjot Singh Sidhu the order saidOn May 15 the apex court had acquitted Sidhu of the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for which he had been awarded threeyear jailA bench of Justice J Chelameswar now retired and Justice Kaul had however convicted him for causing simple injury and imposed a fine of Rs 1000 without any jail termThe court also acquitted coaccused and his cousin Rupinder Singh SandhuIn its judgment the bench had said No doubt that there are lapses in the investigation We cannot hazard a guess whether such lapses occurred because of the general inefficiency of the system or as a consequence of a concerted effort made to protect the accused The law of this country is not that people are convicted of offences on the basis of doubtsSetting aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict that convicted Sidhu the apex court had said the first accused cannot be held to be responsible for causing the death of Gurnam Singh Therefore the judgment under appeal is required to be set aside and is accordingly set aside 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 of the IPCSection 323 voluntary causing hurt of the Indian Penal Code stipulates a punishment of imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to Rs 1000 or bothThe bench had refused to award jail term to Sidhu and only imposed a fine while considering that the case is 30yearold there was no past enmity between the accused and the deceased no weapon was used by the accused and the background in which it happenedThe incident dates back to December 27 1988 when Sidhu and his cousin had beaten up Gurnam Singh and two others in what was described as a roadrage case Gurnam Singh later diedOn April 12 this year the Punjab government supported the High Court decision to convict Sidhu It told the apex court that the 65yearold victim had died after a fist blow from the cricketer turned politicianThe state had said there was no evidence at all to suggest that Gurnam Singh died due to cardiac arrest and not brain haemorrhageIn 1999 the trial court in Patiala had acquitted Sidhu and his cousin saying the medical report stated that the death was due to a heart attackThe High Court in December 2006 had overturned the lower courts decision Sidhu was awarded three years in jailThe apex court in 2007 stayed the conviction after counsel appearing for Sidhu had contended that High Court findings were based on opinions and not medical evidenceSidhus lawyer had argued that there were deficiencies in the medical evidence and the prosecution witnesses had given different statements on oath before the trial courtCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever