Fresh plea wants Sidhu’s confession put on record
PETITIONER WANTS COURT TO DECIDE SIDHU’S APPEAL AGAINST HIS CONVICTION IN LIGHT OF THE CONFESSION
NEW DELHI: A fresh application was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday citing Punjab local bodies and tourism minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s reported confession of guilt in the 1998 road rage case during a television interview in 2010.
Moved by the legal heirs of the complainant, the application wants the court to take the interview on record and then decide Sidhu’s appeal against his conviction and three-year jail term.
Sidhu’s interview to India TV’s “Aap Ki Adalat” show, hosted by journalist Rajat Sharma, was re-telecast on Wednesday night, the court was told. In the interview, Sidhu purportedly not only admitted to his involvement in the brawl but also accepted to hitting the victim, Gurnam Singh, with fist blows, resulting in his death.
A CD of the show was submitted in the court by the complainant’s counsel, senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Siddharth Luthra. The complainant is seeking conviction of Sidhu and the others on charges of murder.
Sidhu’s counsel senior advocate RS Cheema opposed the application, arguing that the court cannot take it on record at this stage. Cheema said the evidence, if any, should have been placed before the trial court or the high court. “Law does not permit admission of such evidence at a stage when the matter is being argued in appeal,” he told the bench of justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay K Kaul.
“Do you want the case to be remanded back to trial court?” the bench asked the complainant’s counsel. Though it allowed the complainant to file the application, it said counsel for both sides should argue on its maintainability on April 10.
Kumar and Luthra said the CD is a “piece of evidence which is absolutely vital and necessary for complete elucidation of the truth”.
Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu were accused of beating Gurnam Singh to death on December 27, 1988, in Patiala following a brawl that started over the victim asking for way.
While the trial court acquitted Sidhu in September 1999, the high court reversed the verdict and held him and Sandhu guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, sentencing them to three-year jail and ₹1 lakh fine each. He was granted bail in 2007 by the top court, which also stayed his conviction.