CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police has reached Dibrugarh in Assam to formally arrest Khadoor Sahib Member of Parliament Amritpal Singh in connection with the Ajnala police station attack case of February 2023, as his National Security Act (NSA) detention ended today. He will, however, remain lodged in the same jail.
After the Punjab and Haryana High Court allowed the Punjab government to keep Amritpal in Dibrugarh Central Jail following the expiry of his NSA detention, a team led by a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer reached the northeastern state on Sunday evening. He is likely to be arrested on April 23.
Amritpal has been lodged in Dibrugarh Central Jail since April 23, 2023, after he was taken into custody and detained under the NSA.
Citing security and law and order concerns if Amritpal is brought to Amritsar for trial, the state government had moved the high court seeking permission to arrest him in the case and continue to keep him in the Assam jail. The government also urged that the trial be conducted through video conferencing.
Amritpal’s counsel, advocate Harpal Singh Khara, said that the high court had permitted the state to arrest him in the case after the expiry of his NSA detention and to conduct subsequent proceedings through video conferencing.
“The court has allowed the trial to be conducted in Amritsar through virtual mode. He will be arrested and produced before the court via video conferencing,” he said.
Sources said that the radical leader, who heads the Waris Punjab De outfit, will be lodged again in the Dibrugarh jail after his arrest by the state police. “Now after his arrest the trial will start in connection with the Ajnala police station attack case, where he is the prime accused,” said an officer.
The First Information Report (FIR) in the Ajnala violence case was registered on February 24, 2023. Charges have been framed against 41 persons, including Amritpal, in this case.
Around 12 FIRs are registered against Amritpal and his supporters apart from the Ajnala case. These cases have been registered in Amritsar (Rural), Jalandhar and Moga and are primarily linked to incidents of violence and intimidation.
A case has also been registered for the murder of social media influencer Gurpreet Singh alias Hari Nau in Kotkapura on October 9, 2024, when he was returning home from the village gurdwara on his motorcycle. The state police claimed that Amritpal was the main conspirator in this case.
Last year, nine of Amritpal’s associates were brought back to Punjab after the state government decided not to extend their NSA detention, and they are now in different jails in the state.
These are Papalpreet Singh, Daljeet Singh Kalsi, Kulwant Singh, Varinder Johal, Gurmeet Singh Bhukhanwala, his uncle Harjit Singh, Basant Singh, Gurinder Singh Aujla and Bhagwant Singh.
They were also detained under the NSA and other charges earlier, but were shifted to Punjab last year and are currently facing trial in the Ajnala sub divisional court.
Amritpal was arrested on April 23, 2023, from Rode village two months after the attack at the police station in Ajnala.
The radical Sikh leader won the Khadoor Sahib seat with 1.9 lakh votes as an Independent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and was administered the oath of office on July 5, 2024, the lone occasion he attended Parliament.
Amritpal has twice moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking parole to attend Parliament sessions.