Former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment in an old assault case by the honourable Supreme Court of India on Thursday. Notably, on December 27 1988, the then cricketer had allegedly hit a person named Gurnam Singh on his head leading to the latter’s death.
The Sessions Court Judge of Patiala had acquitted the Sidhu in September 1999 due to a lack of evidence. The victim’s family had then challenged the decision and moved to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, where, in 2006, the cricketer-turned-politician was convicted and sentenced to three years of imprisonment.
According to the Times of India, Sidhu had then challenged this order in the Supreme Court that has now announced the verdict, reducing his punishment to one year.
“We feel there is an error apparent on the face of record … therefore, we have allowed the review application on the issue of sentence. In addition to the fine imposed, we consider it appropriate to impose a sentence of imprisonment for a period of one year …,” the SC bench said while pronouncing the verdict.
Sidhu also reacted to the development and accepted the judgement given by the Supreme Court. He took to his official Twitter handle and wrote: “Will submit to the majesty of law ….”
Will submit to the majesty of law ….
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) May 19, 2022
Speaking about his professional career, Sidhu played for as many as 16 years for India after making his international debut in 1983. He played 51 Tests and 136 One-Day Internationals, scoring 3202 and 4413 runs, respectively. Overall, the right-handed batter smashed 15 hundreds in his international career, along with 48 half-centuries. Sidhu played 157 first-class and 205 List-A in his career, accumulating 16657 runs and hitting 37 tons and 105 fifties.
