Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was released from the Patiala central jail on Saturday, ten months after he was sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a 34-year-old road rage case.
Wearing a sky blue jacket, the Congress leader walked out of Patiala jail at 5.33 pm. His supporters had assembled since morning outside the prison to accord him a grand welcome upon his release and they could be heard chanting 'Navjot Sidhu zindabad'.
Several Congress leaders including Amritsar MP Gurjit Aujla and former Punjab Congress chiefs Shamsher Singh Dullo were also present outside the jail.
Sidhu was sent to jail in May last year in the 1988 case in which he allegedly thrashed one Gurnam Singh, who later died in hospital.
Soon after coming out of jail, Sidhu took a swipe at the BJP, saying democracy is in chains in the country.
“I was supposed to be released around noon but they delayed it. They wanted media people to leave. Whenever a dictatorship came to this country a revolution has also come and this time, the name of that revolution is Rahul Gandhi,” he said.
Sidhu further alleged that there is a conspiracy to impose President's rule in Punjab. “They are trying to weaken Punjab. I stand like a wall with Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and every Congress worker," he said.
The Punjab government had earlier said it 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," Minister Brahm Shankar Jimpa had said on Friday.