Assembly polls 2022: SC to hear criminal cases against Sidhu, Bains, Azam today

The Supreme Court is slated to hear three matters of political leaders — Navjot Singh Sidhu, Simarjeet Singh Bains and Azam Khan — involved in criminal cases. They are seeking to contest/ campaign for the upcoming assembly elections.

The Supreme Court on Thursday, February 3, will hear three matters of political leaders involved in criminal cases, seeking to contest/ campaign for the upcoming assembly elections.

A 33-year-old case has come back to haunt Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Supreme Court is set to hear a review petition on Thursday at 3:30 pm. The case relates to the death of a man in December 1988 after Sidhu and a friend assaulted him in a road rage incident.

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In 2018, a Supreme Court bench had granted relief to Sidhu and acquitted him of charges of culpable homicide. The SC had ordered that Sidhu would not face any jail time and would have to pay only Rs 1,000 as a penalty as the charges were reduced to "voluntarily causing hurt". The family of the deceased had moved a review plea in 2018, seeking enhancement of the punishment against the cricketer-turned-politician. That review plea is finally up for hearing before a special bench today.

Sidhu has filed his nomination to fight the polls from the Amritsar East constituency.

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Lok Insaf Party leader Simarjeet Singh Bains has sought protection against arrest and quashing of a non-bailable warrant issued against him in a case wherein he was accused of raping a woman in 2020. The woman has opposed grant of any relief to Bains. She argued that due to his political influence, the FIR had not been registered by the police till she approached a Ludhiana court and obtained investigation orders.