1988 road rage case: Navjot Singh Sidhu surrenders in court

A day after the Supreme Court awarded cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu one-year jail in a 1988 road rage case, Sidhu has surrendered before the Patiala court.

The Supreme Court had earlier allowed the review of its May 2018 order exonerating former Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu in the 34-year-old road rage case, in which Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died.

Sidhu was earlier let off with a fine of Rs 1,000. Now, the maximum possible punishment under Section 323 of the IPC has been awarded to Sidhu.

On May 15, 2018, the apex court set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order convicting Sidhu of culpable homicide and awarding him a three-year jail term in the case but had held him guilty of causing hurt to a senior citizen.

Despite finding Navjot Sidhu guilty of "voluntarily causing harm to a 65-year-old man", the Supreme Court spared him jail time and imposed a Rs 1,000 fine.

Later in September 2018, the apex court agreed to examine a review petition filed by the deceased's family members and issued a notice to Sidhu on it.

Right before the Punjab elections earlier this year, his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu had said that the case was being pursued at the behest of SAD leader Bikramjit Majithia.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the plea by Gurnam Singh's family to convict Sidhu for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, under Section 304A of IPC, on Sidhu.

However, the court imposed the maximum punishment under Section 323.