Hours after Supreme Court spared him a jail term in a 1988 road rage case, Punjab Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today said that the almighty has always helped him tide over difficult circumstances.


Sidhu will not have to go to jail as the Supreme Court held him guilty only of causing hurt and let him off with a fine of Rs 1,000. Speaking to media  after the apex court spared him the jail term in the 30-year-old road rage case, Sidhu said, "the almighty has always helped him tide over difficult circumstances. It is the grace of God which has helped me through trying times."


The Supreme Court today convicted Sidhu for voluntarily causing hurt to a 65-year-old man but spared him a jail term in the 1988 road rage case. A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said Sidhu was guilty of Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and was fined Rs 1,000 for the offence.


After the verdict, Sidhu's supporters and party workers were in a jubilant mood and burst firecrackers outside his residence in Amritsar.  Sidhu said that "today it is not the time to point fingers at anyone...when you are on the side of the truth, there is no need to worry". Sidhu said that he will be meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and thanking them for supporting him during difficult times. "I will tell Rahul ji that my life and my every breath is for people of Punjab... I also spoke to Chief Minister and he congratulated me. I told him that my life is for Punjab... and till the time I do not see the state achieve its best, I will not even die," he said. Like Sidhu, his wife Navjot Kaur also looked visibly relieved after the Supreme Court verdict. -- PTI