Navjot Singh Sidhu Gets One-Year Jail Term In 34-Year-Old Road Rage Case

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been sentenced to one-year jail term in a 34-year-old (1988) road rage case, where he was earlier let off with a mere Rs 1,000 fine.

The cricketer-politician, who was replaced by Archana Puran Singh in The Kapil Sharma Show, has to surrender before a court to serve a one-year rigorous imprisonment in a three-decade old road rage case, in which a person had died. However, Sidhu has the option of challenging the order.

Soon after the verdict by Supreme Court, Sidhu took to Twitter and wrote, "Will submit to the majesty of law ...."

According to News18 report, the victim's family had filed a review petition seeking punishment for an offence of more serious category than causing hurt, leading to enhancement of punishment. However, Sidhu had urged Supreme Court not to punish him with a jail term.

As per the report, senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Sidhu, told the bench during the arguments, "It is an extraordinary case in the negative sense which does not merit your lordship's entertainment because it has potential to be subversive of the basic foundations of criminal justice and therefore, an abuse of process."

On December 27, 1988, during an altercation, Sidhu and one of his associates Rupinder Singh Sandhu had allegedly hit one Gurnam Singh, who later died. In 2018, although the apex court had held Sidhu guilty of the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to a 65-year-old man in the case, it spared him a jail term and was let off with just a fine of Rs 1,000.