Khnk god: sidhu convicted!

CHANDIGARH, India (Reuters) - Former national cricketer and current member of parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu was convicted of homicide on Friday by a court that overturned an earlier acquittal related to a road-rage incident 17 years ago. The Punjab and Haryana High Court said 43-year-old Sidhu, now also a popular TV commentator, was guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and added that he would be sentenced on Dec. 6. The offence carries a maximum sentence of a life term. Sidhu, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned from the lower house of parliament within hours of the conviction. Sidhu was involved in a car accident in his hometown of Patiala in Punjab in 1989. The batsman was accused of getting into a fight with the occupant of the other car and beating him up, leading to his death. A lower court acquitted the cricketer in 1999. Sidhu said his lawyers would argue over any sentence and added that he also had the right to challenge the verdict in a higher court. "I will continue to pursue my political ideals, my public activities and continue to serve the people of Sri Amritsar Sahib and Punjab," he said in a letter to BJP chief Rajnath Singh, referring to his constituency. "I have always stood for truth and moral grounds and these principles are above any office or power that I hold. Sidhu played in 51 tests and 136 one-day internationals for India between 1983 and 1999. Initially dubbed "a strokeless wonder" for his defensive approach and lack of strokeplay, the turbaned Sikh reinvented himself as an aggressive batsman with a wide array of shots. Sidhu scored 3,202 runs with nine centuries and 15 fifties in tests at an average of 42.13 and 4,413 runs with six hundreds and 33 fifties at an average of 37.08 in one-dayers. Popularly known as "Sixer" for the huge sixes he hit, Sidhu is famous for his merciless assault on the game's two greatest spin bowlers -- Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan in 1993-94 and Australia's Shane Warne in 1997-98. Later, as a TV commentator and expert analyst, Sidhu amused with his witticisms and controversial statements. He was also a judge on a hugely popular TV comedy game show.

(Additional reporting by Sanjay Rajan in Mumbai)

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