Navjot Singh Sidhu gets one-year jail term 

Former Indian cricketer and Member of Punjab Legislative Assembly, Navjot Singh Sidhu has been handed a one-year prison sentence by the Supreme Court which was reviewing a 34 year old road rage case in which one person died. 

The verdict was announced by the two judge bench comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Thursday while reviewing its own order from 2018 in which the court had reduced Sidhu’s sentence from three years’ imprisonment to INR 1000 fine 

"We have allowed a review application on the issue of sentence," the court said on Friday, according to legal media website livelaw.in. "In addition to the fine imposed, we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by respondent 1(Sidhu)."

The incident took way back in 1988 in the Northern Indian city of Patiala, Punjab. Sidhu and the Gurnam (65 years) were involved in a physical altercation which ultimately resulted in Gurnam’s death. The Indian batter pulled the victim out of his vehicle and brutally assaulted him with his fists. 

According to livelaw.in, Justice Kaul was also a part of the two-judge bench in 2018, along with Justice J Chelameshwar, which had absolved Sidhu of culpable homicide. However, 4 years later the court did find Sidhu guilty of “voluntarily causing hurt” to Gurman. 

Back then the court reversed the judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High court, which in 2006 had found Sidhu guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment. The Supreme Court however thought the decision was purely made on the grounds of conjecture and lacked evidence. 

"...the conclusion of the High Court that Gurnam Singh's death is caused by subdural hemorrhage but not cardiac arrest, in our opinion, is not based on any evidence on record and is a pure conjecture," Justice Chelameshwar had said, according to livelaw.in, "We, therefore, find it difficult to sustain the conviction of the first accused and set­ aside the same. Because to find a man guilty of culpable homicide, the basic fact required to be es established is that the accused caused the death. But, as noticed above, the medical evidence is absolutely uncertain regarding the cause of death of Gurnam Singh."