CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today hailed the Supreme Court's verdict which spared state Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu a jail term in a 1988 road rage case.
"I welcome SC judgement in the road rage case against @sherryontopp. His acquittal on culpable homicide charges shows justice has prevailed. I'd always maintained that there was nothing willful in his act, and the judges have also upheld the same. Law has duly taken its course," Singh tweeted.
The Supreme Court today convicted Sidhu for voluntarily causing hurt to a 65-year-old man but spared him a jail term in the 1988 road rage case and imposed a Rs 1,000 fine on him.
A bench of justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul reversed the findings of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had convicted the cricketer-turned-politician for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and had sentenced him to three years in jail.
Ironically, on April 12, the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government had favoured in the top court the high court's judgement convicting and awarding of the three-year jail term to Sidhu.
At that time, the chief minister had maintained that his government had taken the only legally tenable stand in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar said truth has been victorious while reacting to the Supreme Court verdict in the road rage case involving Sidhu.
In a statement issued here, Jakhar, while congratulating Sidhu, said that he had got justice by being acquitted on culpable homicide charges.