After last-ditch bid for SC relief fails, Sidhu surrenders

NEW DELHI/PATIALA: Former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu surrendered before a Patiala court late Friday afternoon as he ran out of options to delay serving a one-year sentence pronounced by the Supreme Court the day before in a 1988 road rage case.
Sidhu and a friend, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, allegedly hit a man named Gurnam Singh fatally on his head following an altercation in December 1988 in Patiala. The SC convicted Sidhu in 2018 for the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt”, but acquitted him of culpable homicide charges, thereby sparing him a prison term with a fine of Rs 1,000. But Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul added on Thursday oneyear rigorous imprisonment to the 2018 punishment, which was a simple fine.
Sidhu cited health to seek 4-wk reprieve from top court
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought on Friday morning a four-week reprieve from Justice Khanwilkar for 58-year-old Sidhu to surrender, citing the decades that have passed since the case happened and the cricketerturned-politician’s health. But the judge could do little as he was sitting in a combination different from the bench that pronounced the judgment on Thursday.
He suggested that Singhvi approach the Chief Justice of India, but time for urgent mentioning of petitions was over by then on the last working day before the SC’s summer break. Sidhu’s team explored the possibility of filing an urgent application, but that too had little chance of getting listed before Monday for a vacation bench to hear.
Wearing a dark blue Pathan suit and a maroon turban, Sidhu surrendered around 4pm and was taken for the mandatory medical check-up at Mata Kaushalya Hospital. He was taken around 6. 30pm to Patiala Central Jail, where Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia is serving a sentence in a narcotics case since this February.
“Sidhu is in barrack number 10, Majithia in barrack number 11. Other inmates share the barracks with them,” said additional jail superintendent Gurcharan Singh Dhaliwal. “Sidhu brought two pairs of clothes and some utensils. VIP cells or facilities are no longer available in jails. He will be given two pairs of prison clothes. ”
According to Sidhu’s Patiala counsel HPS Verma, he had food before he was taken to prison. “We have moved an application citing Sidhu’s medical requirements in jail as he cannot consume wheat, non-vegetarian food, ghee, and sugar. He can take doubletoned milk,” Verma said.
No senior Congress members were seen with Sidhu in Patiala. Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and the leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa tweeted messages in support of Sidhu.