Court stays ex-cricketer's conviction

India cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu addresses a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

India's highest court suspended the conviction of former cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu yesterday, allowing him to contest a seat in India's parliament, a news report said.

The supreme court made the decision in response to a petition filed by Sidhu challenging a three-year jail term handed to him by a lower court over a road rage killing 18 years ago.

"The order of conviction is suspended," the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted the supreme court ruling as saying.

The court will soon start hearing arguments from Sidhu's attorneys and the prosecution whether to confirm his conviction or drop the lower court's decision to hand him a jail term.

Sidhu spent one day in jail earlier this month but he was freed on bail the next day by the supreme court as he filed his appeal.

Sidhu's lawyers couldn't be immediately reached for comment as they were still in court.

Last month, the Punjab and Haryana High Court sentenced Sidhu on charges of manslaughter for an incident in which a 65-year-old man died during a scuffle triggered by an argument over a parking space in 1988.

The court concluded that Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu had punched Gurnam Singh after dragging him out of his car. Singh, who suffered heart problems, collapsed and died.