SC to hear road rage case involving Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday
Darpan News Desk IANS, 02 Feb, 2022 02:47 PM
New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear a plea seeking review of its May 15, 2018 verdict, where it let off Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu with a mere Rs 1,000 fine in a 1988 road rage case in Punjab, where a Patiala resident had died.
A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul will hear the plea of the family of victim, Gurnam Singh, seeking review of its order.
The top court had let off Sidhu saying there was no sufficient evidence to prove the harsher charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against him.
Sidhu was charged under section 323 of the Indian Penal Code for voluntary causing hurt, however he was let off with just fine. The top court had observed that the incident was more than 30 years old, and there was no past hostility between accused and victim. The court also noted that no weapon was used by the accused.
The top court had set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, which convicted Sidhu of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to three-year jails. The top court noted that Sidhu was wrongly convicted, after examining all evidence, including medical records.
The area has been cordoned off and additional forces have reached the spot. Police said the terrorists involved in firing have been trapped and an operation has been started by the police and security forces.
Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Anurag Thakur, Bhupender Yadav, V. Muraleedharan and Arjun Ram Meghwal held a joint press conference at the Shastri Bhavan here on Thursday and condemned the 'unruly' and 'violent' behaviour of the opposition parties led by the Congress.
Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states as well as where the party is in power as part of an alliance, including Tamil Nadu's M.K. Stalin (DMK), Maharashtra's Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren (JMM) will also be invited.
Besides, the All India Congress Committee, the Maharashtra and Mumbai verified Congress handles, that of Congress Legislative Party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Mumbai Congress President Bhai Jagtap, state party social media head Abhijeet Sapkal, and around 500 other leaders at various level have been blocked on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the state roadways bus that fell into a 500 metre deep gorge following the massive landslide was recovered this morning, rescuers said.
Senior Home Ministry officials on Thursday reviewed the status of the investigations in the two rape cases in Delhi with officials of the Delhi Police. The review was done on the instructions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the officials said.
