Navjot Singh Sidhu to be released from Patiala jail today after 10 months

Navjot Singh Sidhu, Punjab Congress leader and former cricketer, will be walking out of the Patiala jail later today after serving a 10-month sentence in a road accident case. The maverick cricketer-turned-politician announced on Twitter that he will address the media outside jail around noon 

On March 31, Sidhu tweeted that he would be released on Saturday.  “This is to inform everyone that Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu will be released from Patiala Jail tomorrow," read a post shared on the politician's official Twitter handle. 

His counsel HPS Varma said: "He is most likely to be released on Saturday from the Patiala jail."  

Cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu was handed a one-year sentence in the 1988 road rage case and was due to be released in May. Currently, he is being released early on account of his "good behaviour". 

His lawyer Varma told NDTV that the leader was getting an early release 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. 

In 2022, the Supreme Court ordered one-year "rigorous imprisonment" for Sidhu following a petition by the family of a man who died after a brawl with him and his friend in 1988. As per the case, Gurnam Singh, 65, incidentally died in the road rage incident, which involved Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu. 

Singh’s family had asked for a harsher sentence and a review of a 2018 order from the Supreme Court acquitting him of murder. However, the apex court, reviewing its own order, said it considered it "appropriate" to jail Sidhu, and said "some aggravated culpability" must be attached if a person dies. 

Sidhu had been appointed as 'munshi' to do clerical work in the Patiala central prison. 

Earlier in February 2022, former Punjab CM and Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had requested CM Bhagwant Mann to consider an early release for Sidhu.  

Supporters had made preparations for his early release during Republic Day, but the state government didn’t confirm his release.