Anatomy of crime: Punjab cops 1st gave Navjot Singh Sidhu clean chit

CHANDIGARH: While the conviction of cricketer and senior Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu in the 34-year-old road rage case has attained finality with the apex court order on Thursday, the record of the case revealed that the Punjab police had once tried to “help” Sidhu and placed him in Column-2 of the police charge-sheet in this case.
The police had even filed an application in 1994 for withdrawal of prosecution against the former TV show host. Only those accused are put in Column-2 by the police against whom cops find no case.

An examination of the record of this case revealed that while presenting the challan under Section 173 CrPC, he was placed in Column No-2 and an application under Section 321 of CrPC was moved on December 8, 1994, not to prosecute Sidhu. However, the application was dismissed on June 7, 1995, by the Patiala sessions judge. A revision petition was filed before the Punjab and Haryana high court against this decision but the same was also dismissed on June 14, 1999.
An examination of the record also revealed that the ignition keys of the car of the deceased were allegedly taken away by the accused and there are allegations that the same could have been recovered if the accused (Sidhu and his friend) were in custody of the police after the incident. Sidhu had surrendered before the investigating officer on January 2, 1989, i.e., after a gap of five days of the incident, and after obtaining anticipatory bail.
The incident
As per the complaint given by Jaswinder Singh, a resident of Julkan, on December 27, 1988, he, along with his uncle Gurnam Singh and nephew Avtar Singh, had come to Patiala in regard to the marriage of his son. They were going in a Maruti car bearing number CHI-8422, which was driven by Gurnam, to the State Bank of Patiala head office to withdraw some money. At around 12.30pm, when they reached the crossing near Sheranwala Gate and were about to turn towards the State Bank of Patiala, they saw a vehicle bearing number PAD-6030 standing in front of them. When they started to cross this vehicle, one Sardar, i.e., cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was identified by him, started abusing them.
The complainant tried to restrain him, but Sidhu pulled Gurnam out of the vehicle and started hitting him. Jaswinder came out to save Gurnam but a clean-shaven man alighted from the vehicle standing in front of them and started giving him fist blows. They took out the keys of their car and fled away. Jaswinder and Avtar put Gurnam in a rickshaw and brought him to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, where the doctor, after checking, declared him dead.
Med report of the deceased
As per the postmortem report, there were two injuries on the person of Gurnam Singh, the first being an abrasion over the left temporal region at the junction of the upper part of pinna and the second being an abrasion on the left knee. Lungs, heart and part of the liver of the deceased were sent for pathological examination and a board of doctors was constituted, who went into the entire medical aspects of the case and gave their opinion about the cause of death to be the head injury and cardiac condition. One of the senior doctors, Dr Krishan Vij opined the head injury itself could be sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The key findings of the medical board were: “Death in this case is attributed to the effects of head injury and cardiac condition. However, the head injury itself could be sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.”
Defence taken by Sidhu’s lawyers
One of the main defence taken by Sidhu’s lawyers was that the prosecution witnesses (Jaswinder and Avtar) and the deceased (Gurnam) did not come in a car, but were on a scooter, which hit a truck and after quarrelling with the truck driver, Gurnam, having a diseased heart, collapsed. Sidhu and his accomplice Rupinder Singh Sandhu at that point of time were not near the place of occurrence. It is only after hearing the commotion that Sidhu came out and saw Gurnam and the truck driver having a heated exchange of words. It is after that that Gurnam fell on the ground.
The only possible and plausible view, especially taking the medical evidence into consideration, is that the deceased did not die due to violence, but due to a weak heart and he had suffered a heart attack when he started quarreling with the truck driver.
Only one view possible in this case: HC
While convicting Sidhu in this case, the Punjab and Haryana high court had held that in the present case, there is only one view possible of the fist blow given on the temporal region which caused the death of Gurnam Singh. The medical evidence or the ocular account does not point towards Gurnam having died of cardiac arrest (heart attack), HC had observed while convicting Sidhu in this case.