New Delhi, March 23: Rupinder Singh Sandhu, who was convicted along with Punjab Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu in a 1988 road rage case, on Thursday denied his presence at the crime scene and questioned the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s decision to reverse the trial court’s acquittal verdict.
“I (Sandhu) was not present at the scene… I have been dragged in the case,” senior counsel R Basant told a Bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, which is hearing appeals filed by Sidhu and Sandhu in the 30-year-old case.“Have you ever taken a selfie with a cricketer?” asked Justice Chelameswar in a lighter vein.
Referring to testimony of two of the witnesses rejected by the trial court as “untrustworthy”, Basant said, “The trial court had rightly disbelieved the testimony of these two witnesses… The Punjab and Haryana High Court unjustifiably overturned the trial court’s finding without any satisfactory explanation.”
“PW 3 (prosecution witness No 3) and PW 4 didn’t know me. They had referred to me as a clean-shaven person and without there being any evidence that clean-shaven person became accused No 2 (Sandhu),” Basant argued.
As his arguments remained inconclusive, he will resume on Tuesday.Earlier, senior counsel RS Cheema concluded his arguments on behalf of the cricketer-turned politician and assailed the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s verdict.
Cheema had on Tuesday questioned the prosecution theory that Gurnam died due to the injuries caused in the assault. The victim died due to cardiac arrest and not because of the alleged physical assault by the accused duo, he had told the Bench.
Source Tribune India
