Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was released from Patiala Jail on Saturday, about 10 months after he was sentenced to one year in jail by the Supreme Court in a three decades-old road rage case.
The Congress leader was sentenced to one year of imprisonment by the Supreme Court in May last year in the 1988 case of road rage, in which he allegedly thrashed one Gurnam Singh, who later died in hospital. Punjab Minister Brahm Shankar Jimpa said on Friday that the Punjab government has no objection to Sidhu’s release. “The issue of the release of prisoners whose sentence has been completed is approved by the cabinet. Those who have completed their sentence will be released,” Jimpa said.
The Supreme Court allowed the review application on the issue of the sentence against Sidhu. “We have allowed a review application on the issue of sentence. In addition to the fine imposed, we impose a sentence of imprisonment of one year to be undergone by respondent Sidhu,” the court said.
The order was delivered by a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul. The case has gone through the Sessions Court, High Court, and Supreme Court.
