Final arguments in Sidhu road rage case

NEWDELHI: Final arguments in the 30-year-old road rage case against Navjot Singh Sidhu began in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, as the defence made his submissions against the Punjab and Haryana high court’s 2006 verdict convicting Sidhu for the offence.

Senior advocate RS Cheema opened Sidhu’s defence in the case 11 years after the HC verdict was challenged in the apex court.

He questioned the finding that the victim, Gurnam Singh, died after he was beaten up by Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu. He submitted before a bench of justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul that Singh died of cardiac arrest.

As per the FIR filed on December 27, 1988, Sidhu and Sandhu were reportedly present in a Gypsy SUV parked near Sheranwala Gate Crossing. The victim, who was in a Maruti car with two more people and on his way to a bank, asked the occupants to give way. Sidhu allegedly dragged Singh out and beat him up while Sandhu reportedly took the keys of Singh’s car and attacked his friends before speeding away. Singh died in the hospital.

Initially, Sidhu and Sandhu were tried for murder (IPC sec- tion 302) and were acquitted by the Patiala sessions judge in 1999. The Punjab government challenged the verdict in the HC, which convicted the two in 2006 of culpable homicide not amounting to murder with three years of jail term that led to his resignation from the Lok Sabha. Sidhu avoided a jail term by rushing to the SC in January 2007 and obtaining bail. The SC stayed his conviction and the sentence.