Sidhu to surrender before Patiala court; a few leaders, supporters reach his residence

Afew Congress leaders and supporters on Friday morning turned up at the residence of the party’s former Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu who has been sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a 1988 road-rage case.

Sidhu is likely to surrender before a court in Patiala on Friday itself. Former Congress legislator Surjit Singh Dhiman was among those to reach Sidhu’s residence in Patiala.

Patiala District Congress Committee president Narinder Pal Lali, in a message to party supporters on Thursday night, had said that Navjot Singh Sidhu would reach the court at 10 am. He urged the party supporters to reach the court complex around 9:30 am.

The cricketer-turned politician’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu had reached the Patiala residence on Thursday night.

The Supreme Court Thursday had sentenced Navjot Singh Sidhu to one-year rigorous imprisonment in a 1988 road-rage case, saying any undue sympathy to impose an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system and undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law.

The apex court enhanced the sentence of Sidhu to one-year rigorous imprisonment in the road rage incident in which a 65-year-old man had died.

Sidhu, 58, had taken to Twitter to say he ”will submit to the majesty of the law” as the cricketer-turned-politician rode an elephant in Patiala earlier in the day to register a symbolic protest against rising prices of essential commodities.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul allowed a review plea filed by the victim’s family on the issue of the sentence awarded to Sidhu.

Though the apex court had in May 2018 held Sidhu guilty of the offense of ”voluntarily causing hurt” to the 65-year-old man in the case, it spared him a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

”We feel there is an error apparent on the face of record… Therefore, we have allowed the review application on the issue of sentence. In addition to the fine imposed, we consider it appropriate to impose a sentence of imprisonment for a period of one year,” the bench said while pronouncing the verdict.

When reporters sought his reaction to the verdict on Thursday, Sidhu declined to comment.

The family of Gurnam Singh, who died in the 1988 incident, said they finally got justice after 34 years.

”We are grateful to God. We have finally got justice after 34 years,” Gurnam Singh’s son Narvedinder Singh said.