33 years on, former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu retired hurt

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, May 20

On December 27, 1988, Navjot Singh Sidhu inadvertently found himself becoming the protagonist of a crime that would trigger off a 33-year-long legal battle which ultimately would lead to a year-long jail term.

That day, an FIR was registered against him and his childhood friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu at the Kotwali police station in Patiala after the former kicked a man who died on the spot.

The development came when he was working hard to get the selectors’ nod for the Indian cricket team that was scheduled to play a four Test match series in the Caribbean.

On a warm December afternoon, he and Sandhu had gone to the State Bank of Patiala head office on the Mall Road. Sidhu, who was an officer in the bank, was driving his car when he found another vehicle blocking his way just metres away from the bank. He entered into a verbal skirmish with Gurman Singh (65), the driver of the vehicle, and his nephew Jaswinder Singh. Expletives were being traded when suddenly Sidhu landed a kick on Gurnam Singh who subsequently died on the spot.

Jaswinder took his uncle to the Government Rajindra Hospital in a rickshaw where doctors declared him “brought dead”. Jaswinder had to engage a rickshaw as Sidhu and his friend had taken away the keys of the car before fleeing the spot.

Nothing was done on purpose. Everything happened in the heat of the moment.

Minutes before he had left his Yadvindra Enclave residence for the bank, he had asked a couple of local cricketers to be present at his house in the evening. He knew the West Indian fast bowlers were the best in the world and hence wanted to train accordingly. That very evening he had plans to practice playing against golf balls, instead of cricket balls, on his cemented driveway.

By the time Sidhu got his hands dirty in the crime, he had already become a household name in India following five successive half-centuries he scored in the 1987 Reliance World Cup. The advent of TV in India made him one of the most recognisable cricketing faces in the country.

His trials and tribulations started the moment he manhandled Gurnam. Buta Singh, whose son played junior grade cricket and was well known to Sidhu, was then Union Home Minister. With the West Indies tour fast approaching, he tried to use the minister’s position to extricate himself out of the predicament he had landed in. However, he did not find much success. Then Punjab Governor Siddhartha Shankar Ray, too, was approached, but again he found no relief.

The case started playing out in the courts. Every time he had to travel abroad to fulfill his cricketing commitments he had to take the court’s permission. On several occasions, he was even asked to deposit his passport with the court. In the 1996 Wills World Cup, which was played in the subcontinent, he had to travel to Sri Lanka to play in a match at an extremely short notice. With his passport in the possession of the court, the BCCI came to his rescue and facilitated his travel by way of procuring a travel document, which is a temporary identity document enabling a person to travel at a short notice. Nemesis has finally caught up with Sidhu who played 51 Tests and 136 ODIs for his country.

Justice delivered at last, say kin of victim

Patiala: Family members of Gurnam Singh, who died in a road-rage incident with cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in 1988, said they had been granted justice and expressed gratitude to the Almighty after the Supreme Court awarded one-year rigorous imprisonment to Sidhu. Gurnam Singh’s daughter-in-law Parveen Kaur said: “We had trust in the Almighty for justice in the case. Now it has been delivered finally.” TNS

On & Off field

• Navjot Sidhu had become a household name in India following five successive half centuries he scored in the 1987 Reliance World Cup
• But on December 27, 1988, the road rage case happened and Sidhu’s trials and tribulations began. The case started playing out in the courts
• Every time he had to travel abroad to fulfil his cricketing commitments, he had to take the court’s permission

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