Amritpal Singh seeks parole for grandmother’s last rites; cremation on hold

Detained Khadoor Sahib MP’s family defers funeral at Jallupur Khera as lawyers urge court to weigh humanitarian grounds over politics.

Amritsar: A formal application was filed in an Amritsar court seeking temporary parole for jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh to attend the last rites of his grandmother, Charan Kaur.

The Amritsar district court permitted Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh to speak with his ailing grandmother, Charan Kaur, via a 10-minute video call from Assam’s Dibrugarh Central Jail, where he remains incarcerated since April 2023. (HT file photo)

Charan Kaur, 84, died on Sunday following a prolonged illness. Her passing came shortly after the Amritsar district court permitted Amritpal to speak with her via a 10-minute video call from Assam’s Dibrugarh Central Jail, where he remains incarcerated since April 2023.

The family has kept her mortal remains at their native village, Jallupur Khera, and deferred the cremation for three days pending a ruling on the parole plea.

Addressing the press at the Amritsar court complex, defence counsel Harjot Singh Mann and Karamveer Singh confirmed the submission. They urged the court to balance legal frameworks with humanitarian considerations, requesting temporary release for Amritpal and other detained family members.

The legal team and family members criticised the government’s opposition to the plea, arguing that personal grief should remain distinct from political considerations. Citing precedent from other high-profile parole cases, the family called on state institutions to uphold humanitarian standards during times of bereavement.

Amritpal Singh, who is the chief of the Waris Punjab De outfit, returned to India from Dubai in 2022. He was arrested in April 2023 under the National Security Act (NSA) following a crackdown linked to the storming of the Ajnala police station in February that year.

While detained at Dibrugarh Central Jail, Amritpal won the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat as an independent in the 2024 elections. Following the expiration of his NSA order in April 2026, Punjab Police formally re-arrested him within the prison for the underlying Ajnala criminal case. He remains lodged in Dibrugarh on security grounds pursuant to orders from the Punjab and Haryana high court.