Former Indian cricketer and senior Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is leaving Patiala jail today after serving a 10-month sentence for a road-rage incident that resulted in a man’s death 35 years ago. The 59-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician will also address the media outside of jail.
Will address the media outside patiala jail around noon..
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) April 1, 2023
Sidhu’s release date was announced on his Twitter account yesterday, March 31. He is reportedly getting released two months before the end of his sentence for his ‘good behaviour.’ His family also got an intimation from authorities regarding his release from the Patiala jail.
This is to inform everyone that Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu will be released from Patiala Jail tomorrow.
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) March 31, 2023
(As informed by the concerned authorities).
Sidhu was imprisoned on May 20 last year after surrendering to a Patiala court and receiving a one-year severe punishment sentence from the Supreme Court in the case. The family of the victim had sought a harsher sentence and a reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision clearing him of murder.
Sidhu’s lawyer HPS Verma informed that the Punjab Congress leader is getting an early release under the state’s general remission policy. “Navjot Singh Sidhu’s scheduled release was in May, but for all prisoners with good conduct, all Sunday holidays get deducted from the sentence period. Therefore, he is getting a 48-day remission,” he stated.
On December 27, 1988, Patiala resident Gurnam Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu got into a fight over a parking space. The former MP and his friend, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, dragged the latter out of his car and hit him. He later died in a hospital. The Congress leader was accused by an eyewitness of killing the latter with a strike to the head.
The duo had parked their Gypsy in the middle of the road near the Sheranwala Gate crossing in Patiala. When the elderly man reached the spot in a car, he asked them to make room for his vehicle which lead to a violent altercation between them.
