Navjot Sidhu, who was handed a year of imprisonment by the Apex Court in May last year, is set for an early exit from jail today.
Former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is all set to come out of Patiala’s central jail today, 10 months after he was held guilty by the Supreme Court in connection with a road rage case.
The former MLA faced imprisonment on May 20 last year after he surrendered before a local court. The 59-year-old was serving a one-year sentence in a 1988 road rage case.
The former Punjab minister would be released from jail today, before the end of his one-year sentence mainly for two reasons:
- According to the officials of the jail, Navjot Singh Sidhu was given four leaves in a month. Sidhu did not take any leave, so the leaves were cut down from his jail term.
- Sidhu’s good behavior during his imprisonment tenure was also taken into consideration.
“This is to inform everyone that Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu will be released from Patiala Jail tomorrow,” mentioned in a post that was shared on the politician’s official Twitter handle yesterday.
Image Source: Twitter
Once a Chief Ministerial candidate, Sidhu was awarded a year of imprisonment by the apex Court last year. The Honourable Supreme Court noted that any sympathy in imposing an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system and undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of the law.
The Case that sent Sidhu to jail
Navjot Singh Sidhu was convicted in a road rage incident in 1988. The case is about the death of a man, Gurnam Singh, in December 1988 after Sindhu and his friend beat him down.
It was on the 27th of December 1988, Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu parked their car in the middle of a road near the Sheranwala Gate crossing in Patiala. When the 65 years old Gurnam Singh reached that place in a car, he requested them to move aside.
Sidhu then got angry and started to assault Singh. After beating him up badly, Sidhu snatched away the keys to Singh’s car so that he couldn’t receive medical aid. In September 1999, Sidhu was acquitted of murder.
However, in December 2006, the Punjab & Haryana High Court held both Sidhu and his friend guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. A fine of Rs1 lakh was imposed on each of them.
Both of them later challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, where Sidhu claimed that the evidence was contradictory and the option of medical was vague.
On 15th May 2018, the Apex Court convicted Sidhu under section 323 ( punishment for causing hurt to someone voluntarily) and booked him under section 304(II) ( culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
Later in September 2018, the Supreme Court agreed to examine a review petition filed by the deceased’s family members and sent a notice to Sidhu on it. In May,2022, the Supreme Court held Sidhu Guilty and awarded him imprisonment for a year.