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CHANDIGARH: Congress’s Navjot Singh Sidhu features on a shortlist of 51 Punjab prisoners deemed eligible for remission of sentence on Republic Day, potentially setting him up for release around eight months into his year-long imprisonment in a 1988 road rage case.
The proposed list will be taken up for consideration at a meeting of the council of ministers, sources said. Once the cabinet gives the go-ahead, the names will be sent to the governor for his assent. “The state government won’t be extending any special relief to him (Sidhu). There is a fixed criteria for remission. The list includes two other prisoners who have completed their sentence but were in jail for their inability to pay the fine. There are some who have completed 60-70% of their jail term,” a source in the jail department said.
According to procedure, the state’s remission policy is circulated among jail authorities with a mandate to draw up lists of prisoners meeting the stipulated criteria. Apart from the state government’s three remission policies, the Centre has separate ones for special occasions like Republic Day.
The Supreme Court handed Sidhu a year-long jail term in May. He surrendered before a court on May 20 and was sent to Patiala central jail. The former Punjab Congress chief lost the last assembly election in his pocket borough Amritsar (East).
The proposed list will be taken up for consideration at a meeting of the council of ministers, sources said. Once the cabinet gives the go-ahead, the names will be sent to the governor for his assent. “The state government won’t be extending any special relief to him (Sidhu). There is a fixed criteria for remission. The list includes two other prisoners who have completed their sentence but were in jail for their inability to pay the fine. There are some who have completed 60-70% of their jail term,” a source in the jail department said.
According to procedure, the state’s remission policy is circulated among jail authorities with a mandate to draw up lists of prisoners meeting the stipulated criteria. Apart from the state government’s three remission policies, the Centre has separate ones for special occasions like Republic Day.
The Supreme Court handed Sidhu a year-long jail term in May. He surrendered before a court on May 20 and was sent to Patiala central jail. The former Punjab Congress chief lost the last assembly election in his pocket borough Amritsar (East).
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