E-Paper
HC receives plea challenging Amritpal’s election
A plea has been filed before Punjab and Haryana high court challenging election of radical Sikh leader and Khadoor Sahib MP, Amritpal Singh.
A plea has been filed before Punjab and Haryana high court challenging election of radical Sikh leader and Khadoor Sahib MP, Amritpal Singh.
The plea has been moved by independent candidate Vikramjit Singh. High court is yet to take cognizance of the plea.
Detained under the National Security Act, Amritpal, along with nine others from his outfit, has been lodged in Dibrugarh central jail since April last year. They were detained following a crackdown on the outfit Waris Punjab De by the Centre and Punjab on March 18, 2023. Booked under the National Security Act (NSA), Amritpal was detained on April 23, 2023, in a Moga village after almost a month-long chase since his escape on March 18, 2023. In April, the Punjab government re-invoked the NSA against all of them. He was elected as an MP from Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat in the recently concluded parliamentary polls.
The plea alleges violation of election expenditure rules, including non-disclosure of expenses on voter slips, public meetings, vehicles, social media, and paid news.
“The respondent NO.5 (Amritpal Singh) has engaged some professional religious preacher for his campaign, and he has used his religious identity to seek votes on the name of religion, which is also illegal and as such amounts to corrupt practices,” the plea claims.
“The team and family of the respondent No.5 visited various religious places, Gurudwaras and Hindu religious Nagar Kirtan. They have released the manifesto of respondent No.5 from a gurdwara. Meetings were held in various gurdwaras for his support and slogans were raised in his favour. Thus, the respondent has not only failed to maintain her sanctity of the religious place but has also violated the provisions of the Representation of the People Act by seeking votes in the nine religious places and as such his election is liable to be set aside on this score alone,” the plea further claimed.
