Punjab to revoke Amritpal, aides’ detention under NSA
Amritpal was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23, 2023, following an over a month-long manhunt.
Chandigarh : The Punjab Police will bring back Khadoor Sahib MP and radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and his nine associates from the Dibrugarh jail in Assam after the Aam Aadmi Party-led state government decided not to extend their detention under the National Security Act, a senior police officer said on Sunday.
The detention of seven associates is set to expire this month and that of other three, including Amritpal, in April, the officer said, adding they all will face trial in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack.
Deputy inspector general of police (border range Amritsar) Satinder Singh said police will take the investigation forward in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack incident. He said that 10 people, who were detained under the NSA, have not been formally arrested yet in the Ajnala police station attack.
“We will arrest the seven persons in the FIR number 39 and bring them back to Punjab,” the DIG told reporters in Amritsar.
Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav said a high-level police party headed by superintendent of police (SP) Harinder Singh Gill is stationed at Dibrugarh jail to execute the arrest of the seven detenues on completion of their NSA detention period. The Punjab Police will subsequently produce them before the court in Dibrugarh to secure transit remand, ensuring their swift return to Punjab to face trial, he added.
The seven people, identified as Basant Singh, Bhagwant Singh Bajekhana, Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala, Sarabjit Kalsi, Ranjeet Kalsi, Gurinder Pal Singh Gurri Aujla, Harjeet Singh alias Chacha and Kulwant Singh, are being brought back on arrest remand, in the next three days (three on Monday, one on Tuesday and three on Wednesday), Yadav added.
All seven will be brought to Punjab on commercial flights “as and when the date of NSA custody would end”, another officer said.
The three — Papalpreet Singh, who is said to be number two in Waris Punjab De, Amritpal and Varinder Singh Johal, who was Amritpal’s gunman, would also be shifted to Punjab in April when their NSA detention ends, a senior official said.
About Amritpal, whose NSA custody is scheduled to end on April 23, a senior Punjab Police official said that the government is likely to not extend the NSA in his case as well.
“99.9% it has been decided that Punjab would not seek extension in Amritpal’s NSA custody. He will also be arrested by Punjab Police as he is facing many FIRs in Punjab,” the third officer said requesting anonymity.
In 2024, the detention of Amritpal and his nine associates under the NSA was extended by a year. Amritpal was arrested in Moga’s Rode village on April 23, 2023, following an over a month-long manhunt.
The Khalistan sympathiser had escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, 2023, switching vehicles and changing appearances.
Punjab Police had launched the crackdown after the Ajnala incident in which Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, allegedly broke through barricades and barged into the police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city and clashed with police for the release of his aides.
He and his associates were booked on charges of spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duty by public servants.
Amritpal won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the Khadoor Sahib constituency with a margin of over 1,90,000 votes and was allowed to take oath as MP in the closed chamber of LS speaker on July 5, 2024.
A parliamentary committee tasked with considering leave requests of Lok Sabha MPs has recommended a 54-day leave of absence for Amritpal based on two applications submitted by him in the past.
