The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a petition seeking review of its order letting off Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu with a fine of Rs 1000 in the 1988 road rage case in which a man had died.
A Bench led by Justice A M Khanwilkar reserved the verdict hearing arguments from senior advocate AM Singhvi, representing Sidhu and senior counsel Siddharth Luthra for review petitioner. Describing it as an extra-ordinary case, Singhvi submitted that the Sidhu didn’t have any intention to kill, no personal enmity, no motive, no violation of bail conditions and the top court had even suspended his conviction to enable him contest polls after he resigned following his conviction. He urged the Bench not to enhance the sentence, saying the top court doesn’t interference with the sentence, except in death penalty cases of ‘rarest of the rare’ category.
Sidhu was initially tried for murder but the trial court in September 1999 acquitted him. The court, had also acquitted Sidhu’s associate, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, in the case due to lack of evidence in the case and giving the benefit of doubt to the former BJP leader Sidhu. It was then challenged by the victim’s families before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had in 2006, convicted and sentenced Sidhu to three years imprisonment. The Punjab and Haryana High Court reversed the verdict and held them guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and gave him a three-year sentence. Sidhu then filed an appeal before the apex court challenging that order. But the top court in its May 15, 2018 verdict let him off by asking him to pay Rs 1,000 fine.
Image: Tribune
