Navjot Singh Sidhu is being released from jail after 10 months
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu's son spoke to NDTV today ahead of his father's release from Punjab's Patiala jail after spending 10 months in a road-rage incident in which a man was killed 34 years ago.
Sharing details of his conversation with his father, Karan Sidhu said, "My father told me he got the time to introspect. He said he's going to come back stronger."
"My father is a changed man. He got a lot of time for himself. He got time to meditate as well. I now want my mother and father to spend quality time together," he said.
Mr Sidhu, says his son, has a few ideas and is going to come back with a new strategy.
The son added that his father has become fitter and healthier. He has also shed a few extra kilos, he said.
The release is happening earlier due to Navjot Sidhu's good conduct during imprisonment, says his lawyer, as allowed under the rules.
Several Congress leaders and supporters have assembled outside the prison to welcome the cricketer-turned-politician. "Navjot Sidhu's release is like a festival for us," a Congress leader, seen waiting outside the jail, told NDTV.
The Supreme Court had last year in May ordered one-year "rigorous imprisonment" for the Congress leader, who had quit as Punjab Congress chief after his party's defeat in the state election.
The court judgment was on a petition by the family of a man who died after a fight with Mr Sidhu and his friend in 1988. The family had asked for a review of a 2018 order from the Supreme Court acquitting him of murder.
On December 27, 1988, Mr Sidhu got into an argument with 65-year-old Gurnam Singh, a resident of Patiala, over a parking spot. Mr Sidhu and his friend, Rupinder Singh Sandhu, allegedly dragged Gurnam Singh out of his car and hit him. He later died in a hospital.
The Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mr Sidhu to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 rupees for voluntarily hurting a person.
However, the 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.