Punjab Congress Party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is set to leave Patiala jail today, 10 months after serving his sentence in a road rage accident that killed a man 34 years ago. A tweet from his official account this morning said the 59-year-old cricketer-turned-politician would speak to the media outside the prison at noon.
She will address the media outside Patiala Jail at noon..
– Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) April 1, 2023
On Friday, the Punjab Congress leader had tweeted that “concerned authorities” had informed him that he would be released today.
Before his release, his supporters gathered outside Patiala Jail to a grand welcome. “The release of Navjot Sidhu is like a festival for us,” one of the Congress leaders, who was seen waiting outside the jail, told NDTV.
Navjot Singh Sidhu was sentenced to one year in prison in the road rage case and was due to be released in May but was released early due to his “good behaviour”.
His lawyer HBS Verma told NDTV that the Congress leader will be granted early release under the state’s general forgiveness policy. He said, “Navjot Sidhu was scheduled to be released in May, but for all prisoners of good behavior, all Sundays are deducted from the sentence period. Therefore, (Navjot) Sidhu gets 48 days of remission.”
Last year in May, the Supreme Court ordered a one-year “aggravated prison” for the 59-year-old politician after a petition by the family of a man who died after a fight with Navjot Sidhu and his friend in 1988. He asked for a harsher sentence and a review of the Supreme Court’s 2018 order acquitting him of The crime of premeditated murder.
On 27 December 1988, Navjot Sidhu got into an argument with 65-year-old Gurnam Singh, a resident of Patiala, over a car park. Navjot Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu allegedly dragged Gurnam Singh from his car and beat him. He later died in hospital.
An eyewitness accused Siddhu of killing Gurnam Singh with a blow to the head.
The Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mr. Siddhu to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 for harming a person voluntarily.
However, the court, after reviewing its order, said it considered it “appropriate” to imprison Mr Seydoux, saying that “some aggravated guilt” should be attached in the event of a person’s death.
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