New Delhi, May 19: The Supreme Court on Thursday has imposed one year of rigorous imprisonment on former Punjab Congress president, Navjot Singh Sidhu in a 1988 road rage case in which Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died.
The court had earlier let him off with a fine of Rs 1,000. He will be taken into custody to serve out his one year sentence. The Bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul rejected the plea for fastening culpable homicide not amounting to murder charge under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on Sidhu.
*Dec 27, 1988: FIR lodged against Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rupinder Sandhu for allegedly beating a man up after he asked him to remove his car from the middle of a road in Patiala. The man died in hospital.
*Jul 14, 1989: Punjab police files charge sheet under section 304 of IPC only against Sandhu.
*Jul 22: A separate complaint of murder filed against both Sidhu and Sandhu.
*Sep 25, 1990: Trial court in Patiala frames charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Sandhu.
*Aug 30, 1993: Sessions court exercises its power under section 319 of CrPC (adding additional accused) and summons Sidhu to stand trial.
*Sep 22, 1999: Trial Court acquits Sidhu of the murder charges.
*Dec 1, 2006: Punjab and Haryana HC reverses trial court verdict and convicts Sidhu and Sandhu of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentences them to three-year jail with a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.
*Jan 23, 2007: SC stays conviction of Sidhu and co-accused, paving the way for him to contest the by-poll for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.
*Apr 12, 2018: The Amarinder Singh-led Congress government favours in SC the high court's judgement convicting and awarding the three-year jail term to Sidhu.
*Apr 18: SC reserves verdict on appeals of Sidhu and Sandhu against the HC verdict.
*May 15: SC spares Sidhu from jail term, convicts him for the offence of volunatrily causing hurt and imposes a fine of Rs 1,000.
*May 19: SC has imposed one year rigours imprisonment on former Punjab Congress president, Navjot Singh Sidhu in the three decade old assault case in which a person had died.