Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail, 34 years after he was accused of killing a man in a fit of rage. India’s Supreme Court has delivered its latest ruling after the victim’s family appealed a 2018 verdict that saw the 58-year-old former Test starter walk away with a 1,000 rupees ($13) fine.
A trial court initially sentenced Sidhu to three years in prison for the 1988 incident in which the batsman, a regular member of the national team at the time, and one of his friends beat up a man in a parking lot. Read more about Hamza Shehbaz elected CM in symbolic assembly.
The victim later died in hospital, but Sidhu was only convicted of the assault in 1999. India’s Supreme Court reversed that ruling in 2018, saying the case was more than 30 years old and Sidhu had not used a weapon and chose to impose a small fine. Following the decision, the victim’s family approached the Supreme Court to request a harsher sentence.
A brave opener, Sidhu scored 3,202 runs in 51 test matches and 4,413 runs in 136 one-day internationals. Sidhu is remembered for hitting Shane Warne in every corner early in the Australian big spinner’s test run. He made his political debut with the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party before moving to the opposition Congress.
