The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday convicted Bharatiya Janata Party MP and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu for causing the death of a Patiala resident following a scuffle in 1988.
The high court overturned an acquittal by a lower court.
A division bench comprising Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and Baldev Singh found 43-year-old Sidhu guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
It will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on December 6.
A Patiala district and session court judge had acquitted Sidhu in September 1999. The Punjab government went to the high court challenging the lower court verdict.
Sidhu, who was in Delhi when the judgment was pronounced, faces up to life in jail.
An FIR registered on December 27, 1988, alleged that Sidhu and Bhupinder Singh Sandhu hit Gurnam Singh after dragging him out his car.
Public Prosecutor Vinod Ghai said Sidhu had admitted to the crime at the time of occurrence and that he had no enmity with the deceased. Sidhu, he said, was named in the FIR.
The Patiala sessions and district court, on September 22, 1999, had acquitted Sidhu of the charges under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was accused of showering blows on Gurnam Singh after dragging him out of his car and injuring him.
Gurnam Singh was taken to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Sindhu, later in the day, offered to resign as MP.
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