Chandigarh/Ferozepur, Dec. 13 -- Hours after Ferozepur rural police detained gangster-turned-politician Gurpreet Singh Sekhon and his two associates on Thursday evening as a precautionary step ahead of the December 14 rural elections, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday ordered his release upon furnishing bail bonds.

The directions came after Sekhon's mother Kulbir Singh Sekhon filed a plea, alleging illegal confinement by the station house officer (SHO) of the Kulgarhi police station in Ferozepur.

The high court bench of justice Sanjay Vashisth directed the deputy commissioner-cum-district magistrate, Ferozepur, to ensure that he was released from custody forthwith, "otherwise it would amount to violation of the fundamental rig...