Former India player Navjot Singh Sidhu sentenced to one year of jail

The Supreme Court of India has sentenced former Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu to one year in a case dating back to 1988. Sidhu was earlier found guilty of assault in 2018 by the apex court and was slapped with a fine of INR 1,000.

The victim's family then petitioned for a harsher sentence on the former opener and his associate. In December 1988, Sidhu, along with his friend, allegedly assaulted a man named Gurnam Singh, who died later.

The 58-year-old will have to surrender before the court to serve his 'rigorous imprisonment for 12 months'. However, Sidhu dutifully accepted the court's decision. "Will submit to the majesty of law," read Sidhu's recent post on Twitter. 

A Sessions Court Judge of Patiala had earlier acquitted the cricketer-turned-politician in 1999 due to a lack of evidence in the same case.

In 2006, the Punjab and Haryana High Court convicted Sidhu after the victim's family challenged the decision made in 1999 and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment.

The SC heard Sidhu's petition challenging this decision and had his sentence reduced up to one year.

Sidhu has represented India in 51 Tests and 136 One Day Internationals (ODI) from 1983 to 1999. He has 3,202 runs in red-ball cricket with nine centuries and 4,413 runs in the 50-overs format with six tons and 48 fifties.

Known as 'Jonty Sidhu' in the second half of his career, he played 157 First-Class and 205 List-A matches, scoring a total of 16,657 runs, including 37 tons and 105 fifty-plus scores.

After retiring from playing active cricket, Sidhu pursued commentary and charmed audiences all over with his idioms and poems. He soon became a television personality, judging comedy shows on national television.

Soon after, he ventured into active politics and won a Lok Sabha seat for the Amritsar constituency. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha before leaving BJP.

He soon joined NIC and was recently elected as Punjab Chief of the same party before resigning from his position.