Punjab Congress Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been acquitted in the 1988 Patiala road rage case. The bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul has set aside the order of lower court and has found Sidhu guilty of simple injury and spared him prison time.
On December 27, 1988, Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu hit 65 year old Gurnam Singh, after getting into a dispute with Rupinder and fled the scene. The trial court had acquitted them, but high court held them guilty of homicide not amounting of murder overturning trail court orders. The high court suspended them for three-year prison sentence and imposed 1 lakh fine on the convicts.
But earlier in April, Congress government in Punjab has asked the Supreme Court to uphold Sidhu’s convictions. The apex court granted bail to Sidhu and Sandhu. The victim family appealed to SC to enhance Sidhu’s three year old prison time. In 2007, SC suspended Sidhu’s convictions and let him run elections due to pendency of their appeals in Supreme Court.
However, SC bailed Sidhu under the Section 323 of Indian Penal Code. It says whosoever voluntarily causes hurt, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both. The friend has also been acquitted with the fine of Rs. 1000.
