INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
After supporting Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's conviction and jail-term in a 30-year-old road rage case in the Supreme Court,
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh defended his government's stand saying it was "the only legal option available".Mr Sidhu had
allegedly hit a 65-year-old man, Gurnam Singh, on the head during an argument on a road in Patiala on December 27, 1988
Gurnam Singh died of a haemorrhage.A trial court had discharged Mr Sidhu, but the High Court reversed it and held him guilty of culpable
He was given three years in jail
In 2007, the Supreme Court suspended Mr Sidhu's sentence and granted him bail after he appealed his conviction by the Punjab and Haryana
The suspended sentence enabled him to contest the Lok Sabha bypolls from Amritsar.On Thursday, the Punjab government told the top court that
Mr Sidhu's conviction should be upheld.The 55-year-old cricketer-turned-politician had quit the BJP in 2016 and joined the Congress last
year.Captain Singh's government, officials say, had no choice but to oppose its own minister in court
After arguing against Mr Sidhu in the high court, it could not change its stand before the Supreme Court, they said.Captain Singh, however,
hoped that the judge would take into account Mr Sidhu's "contribution to the society and the country" in his final verdict."Though the
government could not have taken any other stand in the apex court, other than what it had been taken in the trial and high court earlier,
Sidhu deserved the court's consideration," said the Chief Minister, who is drawing flak for letting down his own minister.He added, "Had we
Singh and the way his case was handled by the Punjab government, Captain Singh, according to news agency IANS, said, "Sidhu, whom I have
known since he was a child, was a person totally above board, who went out of the way to help people in need.With inputs from agencies
