1988 road rage case: Navjot Singh Sidhu seeks time from Supreme Court to surrender

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday sought a few weeks’ time from Supreme Court to surrender in 1988 road rage case.

On Friday morning, a few Congress leaders and supporters 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.

Also read: Navjot Singh Sidhu’s 1988 road rage case: What happened so far

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

In a message to party supporters on Thursday night, Patiala District Congress Committee president Narinder Pal Lalit 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.

Also read: 1988 road rage case: Supreme Court sends Navjot Singh Sidhu to one year in jail

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

On Thursday, the Supreme Court 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.

Also read: Amarinder Singh Raja Warring replaces Navjot Singh Sidhu as Punjab Congress chief

Navjot 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.

In May 2018, though the Supreme Court had held Navjot Sidhu guilty of the offence 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.

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.