20-year-old case against Navjot Singh Sidhu reopened

sNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India decided to review a 1998 road rage case against former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu. According to the Indian media, Sidhu was acquitted in the case earlier, but the victim’s family filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking a modification of its earlier order. The top court accepted the review petition, issuing a notice to Sidhu and seeking his response on the issue.

In May, the cricketer-turned-politician was let off over a fine of 1,000 Indian rupees in the case in which one person died. The court had said there was no evidence to prove that the death was caused by Sidhu.

On December 27, 1998, Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu got into an argument with a man called Gurnam Singh over parking space in Patiala city of Indian Punjab. It is said that Sidhu and Sandhu dragged Gurnam out of the car and hit him after which the latter died.

A trial court had acquitted Sidhu but the Punjab and Haryana High Court declared him guilty in 2006, sending him to jail for three years in the road rage case, India media stated. Sidhu and his friend then approached the Supreme Court of India and in 2007 the cricketer-turned-politician was granted bail. However, the case has been reopened after Gurnam's family filed has review petition.