Navjot Singh Sidhu, a leader of the Congress party in Punjab, is set to walk out of Patiala jail today after serving 10 months of ‘rigorous imprisonment’ for a road rage incident 34 years ago in which a man was killed. Sidhu’s official Twitter account confirmed that he will address the media outside the jail around noon. His supporters have gathered outside the jail for his grand welcome.
According to Sidhu’s lawyer, he is being released early due to ‘good behaviour’ under the state’s general remission policy. ‘Navjot Sidhu’s scheduled release was in May, but for all prisoners with good conduct, all Sunday holidays get deducted from the sentence period. Therefore, (Navjot) Sidhu is getting a 48-day remission,’ he said.
The Supreme Court had ordered one-year rigorous imprisonment for Sidhu in May last year after a petition by the family of a man who died after a brawl with Sidhu and his friend in 1988. The family had asked for a harsher sentence and a review of a 2018 order from the Supreme Court acquitting him of murder.
On December 27, 1988, Sidhu had an argument with 65-year-old Gurnam Singh over a parking spot. Sidhu and his friend allegedly dragged Singh out of his car and hit him, and he later died in a hospital. The Supreme Court, reviewing its own order, said it considered it ‘appropriate’ to jail Mr Sidhu, saying ‘some aggravated culpability’ must be attached if a person dies.
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