New Delhi: Amrendra Singh-led Punjab government on Thursday favoured the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict convicting and awarding a three-year jail term to its minister Navjot Singh Sidhu in a 1988 road rage case. The cricketer-turned-politician, who deserted the BJP and joined the Congress days before the Punjab assembly election last year, holds the tourism portfolio in the Amrendra Singh Cabinet.
A bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul which is hearing the 30-year-old case was told by the state government that as per the evidence Gurnam Singh, a Patiala resident, had died after he was given fist blow by Sidhu.
Appearing for the Punjab government, Advocate Sanram Singh Saron said, “there is not a single evidence which suggest that the cause of death was cardiac arrest and not brain hemorrhage as concluded by the trial court”.
“The trial court verdict was rightly set aside by the High Court. Accused A1 (Navjot Singh Sidhu) had given fist blow to deceased Gurnam Singh leading to his death through brain hemorrhage.” he said. Citing the report, the state said that two prosecution witnesses were with Gurnam Singh when he was taken to the hospital and even there statements were recorded.
