"My Father Is A Changed Man": Navjot Sidhu's Son To NDTV

Patiala/New Delhi:

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu's son spoke to NDTV today ahead of his father's release from Paunjab'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.

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 cricketer-turned-politician, who had quit as Punjab Congress chief after his party's defeat in the state election.

The court judgement 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.