Navjot Singh Sidhu faces one-year rigorous imprisonment in 1988 road rage case

On September 12, 2018, the Supreme Court decided to hear a plea seeking a review of its May 15, 2018 ruling imposing a Rs 1,000 punishment on Sidhu in the case.  

In a three-decade-old road rage case, the Supreme Court sentenced former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu to one year in prison on Thursday. Sidhu has been sentenced to one year in jail. The Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of a review petition brought by the victim's family. The order was issued by a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and SK Kaul.

The Supreme Court had already deferred its decision on an application to broaden the extent of notice in the case against Sidhu. The application was filed before the Supreme Court as part of the review petition. Sidhu had asked the court to reject the motion to broaden the scope of the road rage case.

Earlier, the cricketer-turned-politician was acquitted of homicide charges but found guilty of causing bodily harm to the dead. On September 12, 2018, the Supreme Court decided to hear a plea seeking a review of its May 15, 2018 ruling imposing a Rs 1,000 punishment on Sidhu in the case. A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and SK Kaul, which had previously issued Sidhu a notice "limited to quantum of sentence," will examine the amount of penalty imposed on him.

Sidhu and his companion Rupinder Singh Sandhu were first charged with murder, but the trial court acquitted him in September 1999. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court overturned the decision, finding them guilty of culpable homicide that did not amount to murder and sentenced him to three years in jail. 

The prosecution's case was that in December 1988, the victim and the appellants got into a heated argument over an appellants' vehicle that was allegedly parked in the middle of the road. According to the prosecution, this exchange resulted in a physical assault on the victim, who was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital. The prosecution claimed that Sidhu fled the scene of the crime.