New Delhi: Congress’ Navjot Singh Sidhu is now prisoner number 241383 and is placed in barrack number 7 in Patiala jail in Punjab.
The Congress leader on Friday surrendered in a court in Patiala, 24 hours after the Supreme Court sentenced him to one year jail in a three-decade-old road rage incident in which a man was killed.
The 58-year-old surrendered shortly after 4 pm, and was taken for the mandatory medical examination, and after that he was taken to the jail in a police jeep.
Another high-profile prisoner and Mr Sidhu’s rival Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia is also lodged in the same jail.
Bikram Majithia, who is in jail in connection with a drugs case, had contested against Mr Sidhu from Amritsar East in the assembly polls in February-March. Both leaders lost the election to AAP’s Jeevanjot Kaur.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered one-year “rigorous imprisonment” for the cricketer-turned-politician, who recently quit as Punjab Congress chief after his party’s defeat in the state election.
For now, the jail life begins for the Punjab leader.
What A Prison Day Looks Like:
5:30 am: Day begins early for inmates
7 am: They are served biscuits or black chickpeas with tea
8:30 am: Brunch (6 chapatis, lentils/veggies), go off to work
5:30 pm: Convicts finish work allotted as per category
6 pm: Dinner (six chapatis, lentils/veggies)
7 pm: Inmates locked inside their barracks
The prisoners earn ₹ 30-Rs 90 daily.
For the first three months, the convicts are trained without wages.
They earn ₹ 30-90 daily after being classified as unskilled, semi-skilled or skilled prisoner.
Convicted criminals can work eight hours a day and their charges are borne by the government.
Mr Sidhu, known for his sartorial choices, will now be seen wearing just whites in jail.
On December 27, 1988, Mr Sidhu got into an argument with 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 hospital.
Mr Sidhu was accused by an eyewitness of killing Gurnam Singh with a blow to the head.
Mr Sidhu was acquitted by a local court in 1999 over lack of evidence, but was convicted of culpable homicide by the High Court in 2006 and sentenced to three years in jail.
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Mr Sidhu had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, which reduced his sentence and dismissed the case after ordering the former cricketer to pay a fine, saying the incident was 30 years old and Mr Sidhu had not used a weapon.
But the family of the victim filed for a review of the 2018 judgment.
